Often terminal commands are called from Python with os.system or subroutine libraries. This complements Python's abilities, and there is some functionality to be achieved by doing it the other way around - calling Python programs from the terminal. This is going beyond entering just one or two commands like ls or grep to having a short script.
There are two Python scripts in this repo which simulate a time-consuming process. One of the two contains a line which deliberately crashes it shortly before the end. There is also a third Python script that simulates a process that has possibly hung or died. Then there is a bash script which can be run by typing:
bash run_programs.sh
That runs these programs one after the other and diverts their outputs stderr and stdout to a logfile instead of displaying them on the screen. Maybe it should do both, but for now it is going into the file. Also, there is a time command whose output also goes into that file.
The script now also contains the functionality to:
- put the computer to sleep without the need for
sudoonce the programs are finished. - something which watches how long a program is been running, and if it has been going longer than it should, perhaps thirty minutes rather than ten minutes, try to shut it down or otherwise kill it, so that the rest of the script can continue to run. Of course if that is carried out by the bash script it is noted in the logfile.
- save the exit code of each Python process to the logfile once it is finished, as an extra record of what happened