Shell commands are blocking -- work around?

[John Craig]

You could write a request to a text file and have a cron job (maybe 
running every couple of minutes) pick up the request from the text file, 
do the processing and write the results to a result file.  You can then 
poll the result file from your rev app.

I've use this technique many times with PHP.

Hope this info is of use.

JC


Sivakatirswami wrote:
> Some on our team are *nix nerds and if I need a powerdrill to add to my
> tool box they are, being long time masters of the unix  patchwork quilt
> method of micro programs and  pipes...  more than happy to give me
> a little bash script. OK so, my cmd line skills are slowly improving and
>  I can install these widgets in
>
> /usr/local/bin/some_cool_tool.sh  # on my OSX box, G4 Powerbook
>
> e.g.
>
> SEARCH_PATTERN=$1
> locate index.shtml | while read INDEX_FILE; do
>   fgrep -H -i "$SEARCH_PATTERN" $INDEX_FILE
> done | more
> exit 0
>
> (wow, that is soooo concise!)
>
> and  then in Revolution set up a button:
>
> on mouseUp
>   put empty into fld "results"
>   set the shellCommand to "/bin/sh"
>   put "/usr/local/bin/web_content_search.sh" & quote & fld 
> "findString" & quote
> into tShellCmd
>   put shell (tShellcmd) into fld "results"
> end mouseUp
>
> It all works, is very "sweet" And it is a  *lot* faster than using 
> transcript
>  for the same job. *but* Only problem is: it is blocking... and this 
> is documented behavior:
>
> "The current handler pauses until the shell returns its result. If the
> command was successful but did not return anything, the shell function
> returns empty."
>
> I tried this:
>
> on mouseUp
>   put empty into fld "results"
>   send "searchWebContent" to me in 1 second
> end mouseUp
>
> on searchWebContent
>   set the shellCommand to "/bin/sh"
>   put "/usr/local/bin/web_content_search.sh " & quote & fld 
> "findString" & quote into tShellCmd
>   put shell (tShellcmd) into fld "results"
> end searchWebContent
>
> That also works, but it is still blocking.
>
> Any work arounds? Goal: production environment where we want
> to fire off some long processes, go back to work, come back
> after a few minutes and pick up the results.
>
> (open and read contents, check for a string in 10,000+ index.shtml
> files, return results-hits) OK, so, its already super fast, by a
> magnitude  of 20 times faster than the same dig  in BBEdit,
> but still, in those 2 minutes I could be getting some work done.
>
> Does this go to the old problem we face  with Rev being a
> single  threaded  app? (I don't know exactly what that means,
> but Andre keeps waving that flag! and this smells like a case in 
> point...)
>
> Of course I can just open the terminal in OSX and run the cmd there and
> go  back  to work in Revolution, but that breaks the integration.
> (have to cut and  paste results into Rev... to carry on)
>
> it would really be great (am i dreaming?) if Process #1 went off to get
> my Hot Thai Special, while I went back to work (Process # 2) and
> then later Process #1 rings a bell saying "Lunch has arrived!"
>
> i.e. background process completion notification interrupts
> foreground operations where  "interrupt" is a desired behavior.
> ala "Ghost" on OSX
>
> I do a lot of in house RAD data processing apps and there's too much
> thumbtwiddly while waiting for results...
>
>  IT rapsters singing:
>
> "Files get big, bigger and bigger
> Directories grow, grow and grow...
> the busy cursors spin, spin, spin...
> work done in one hour goes, down, down, down..."
>
> Sivakatirswami
> www.himalayanacademy.com
>
> Get Hinduism Today Digital Edition. It's Free!
> http://www.hinduismtoday.com/digital/
>
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