Ctrl C in shell script

Question

I've got a shell script with the following code;

#!/bin/bash
nfcapd -z -w -t30 -p 2055 -l /home/shane/Documents/nfdump

My problem is that when I execute the shell script, the command above executes over and over (it captures network traffic from a router), but I'd like for it to stop after 30 seconds. In the terminal I would just press Ctrl+c, is there a way of executing this command (Ctrl+c) after a certain time t?

take a look at this-: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5161193/bash-script-that-kills-a-child-process-after-a-given-timeout — suspectus, Mar 01 '13 at 11:26

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 01 '13 at 11:27

6

Use timeout

timeout 30 nfcapd -z -w -t30 -p 2055 -l /home/shane/Documents/nfdump

More info here

answered Mar 01 '13 at 11:27

user000001

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 11:36

2

Put this statement after #!/bin/bash

(sleep 30 ; kill -9 $$ )&

See if it works in your case.

answered Mar 01 '13 at 11:36

Kaunteya

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Almost -1: You must not recommend `-9` here. Especially given that the question specifically mentions ctrl-C, which sends `SIGINT`. – William Pursell Mar 01 '13 at 13:59

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '13 at 12:50

2

You may also kill the last job:

#! /bin/bash
nfcapd -z -w -t30 -p 2055 -l /home/shane/Documents/nfdump &
sleep 30 ; kill %%
echo "nfcapd terminated"
exit 0

answered Mar 01 '13 at 12:50

Edouard Thiel

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Ctrl C in shell script

3 Answers3