unbuffer(1) [linux man page]

UNBUFFER(1)                                                   General Commands Manual                                                  UNBUFFER(1)

NAME

       unbuffer - unbuffer output

SYNOPSIS

       unbuffer program [ args ]

INTRODUCTION

       unbuffer  disables  the output buffering that occurs when program output is redirected from non-interactive programs.  For example, suppose
       you are watching the output from a fifo by running it through od and then more.

            od -c /tmp/fifo | more

       You will not see anything until a full page of output has been produced.

       You can disable this automatic buffering as follows:

            unbuffer od -c /tmp/fifo | more

       Normally, unbuffer does not read from stdin.  This simplifies use of unbuffer in some situations.  To use unbuffer in a pipeline,  use  the
       -p flag.  Example:

               process1 | unbuffer -p process2 | process3

CAVEATS

       unbuffer -p may appear to work incorrectly if a process feeding input to unbuffer exits.  Consider:
               process1 | unbuffer -p process2 | process3

       If  process1  exits,  process2 may not yet have finished.  It is impossible for unbuffer to know long to wait for process2 and process2 may
       not ever finish, for example, if it is a filter.  For expediency, unbuffer simply exits when it encounters an EOF from either its input  or
       process2.

       In  order  to  have a version of unbuffer that worked in all situations, an oracle would be necessary.  If you want an application-specific
       solution, workarounds or hand-coded Expect may be more suitable.  For example, the following example shows how to allow grep to finish pro-
       cessing  when  the  cat before it finishes first.  Using cat to feed grep would never require unbuffer in real life.  It is merely a place-
       holder for some imaginary process that may or may not finish.  Similarly, the final cat at the end of the pipeline is  also  a  placeholder
       for another process.

       $ cat /tmp/abcdef.log | grep abc | cat
       abcdef
       xxxabc defxxx
       $ cat /tmp/abcdef.log | unbuffer grep abc | cat
       $ (cat /tmp/abcdef.log ; sleep 1) | unbuffer grep abc | cat
       abcdef
       xxxabc defxxx
       $

BUGS

       The man page is longer than the program.

SEE ALSO

       "Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don Libes, O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.

AUTHOR

       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

                                                                    1 June 1994                                                        UNBUFFER(1)

DISLOCATE(1)						      General Commands Manual						      DISLOCATE(1)

NAME

       Dislocate - disconnect and reconnect processes

SYNOPSIS

       dislocate [ program args...  ]

INTRODUCTION

       Dislocate allows processes to be disconnected and reconnected to the terminal.  Possible uses:

	      o   You can disconnect a process from a terminal at work and reconnect from home, to continue working.

	      o   After having your line be dropped due to noise, you can get back to your process without having to restart it from scratch.

	      o   If  you  have  a problem that you would like to show someone, you can set up the scenario at your own terminal, disconnect, walk
		  down the hall, and reconnect on another terminal.

	      o   If you are in the middle of a great game (or whatever) that does not allow you to save, and someone else kicks you off the  ter-
		  minal, you can disconnect, and reconnect later.

USAGE

       When run with no arguments, Dislocate tells you about your disconnected processes and lets you reconnect to one.  Otherwise, Dislocate runs
       the named program along with any arguments.

       By default, ^] is an escape that lets you talk to Dislocate itself.  At that point, you can disconnect (by pressing ^D) or  suspend  Dislo-
       cate (by pressing ^Z).

       Any  Tcl  or  Expect  command  is also acceptable at this point.  For example, to insert the contents of a the file /etc/motd as if you had
       typed it, say:

	    send -i $out [exec cat /etc/motd]

       To send the numbers 1 to 100 in response to the prompt "next #", say:

	    for {set i 0} {$i<100} {incr i} {
		expect -i $in "n"xt #"
		send -i $out "$i
	    }

       Scripts can also be prepared and sourced in so that you don't have to type them on the spot.

       Dislocate is actually just a simple Expect script.  Feel free to make it do what you want it to do or just  use	Expect	directly,  without
       going through Dislocate.  Dislocate understands a few special arguments.  These should appear before any program name.  Each should be sep-
       arated by whitespace.  If the arguments themselves takes arguments, these should also be separated by whitespace.

       The -escape flag sets the escape to whatever follows.  The default escape is ^].

CAVEATS

       This program was written by the author as an exercise to show that communicating with disconnected processes is easy.  There are many  fea-
       tures that could be added, but that is not the intent of this program.

SEE ALSO

       Tcl(3), libexpect(3)
       "Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don Libes, O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.

AUTHOR

       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

								  7 October 1993						      DISLOCATE(1)