Stop blinking text after process is complete

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1

Trying to make some blinking text to designate a process taking place. Trying to figure out how when the process is complete how to end the blinking. I could clear out but then I lose any prior output which I don't want.

echo "Archiving Files..."
printf "\x1b[5mArchiving...\x1b[25m"
wait $!
tar -zcf $fileName.tar.gz
echo "Done!"
2

Try:

blink=$(tput blink) reset=$(tput sgr0)
printf "%s" "${blink}Archiving...${reset}"

See also this thread..

3

You could also put your blinking text smoewhere on screen in this case at line 23 in the middle and and overwrite it using terminal escape codes only:-

printf "\x1b[23;35f\x1b[5mArchiving...\x1b[0m"
sleep 5
#<your working code here>
printf "\x1b[23;35f\x1b[5m            \x1b[0m\x1b[23;1fArchiving finished...\n"

Ignore the "sleep 5" as it is just a delay to show this working...

4

Depending on your system's and terminal's capabilities, you could use console_codes (c.f. man ) to e.g

and then overwrite the blinking string as wisecracker proposed. But all is lost if scrolling occurs and the position on screen is gone...
Use

to limit the scrolling region.

5

The IBM way (from mksysb etc.) is to draw dots on the screen.

It goes something like this:-

while true
do
   echo ".\c"
   sleep 10
done &
PID=$!

# Your code here
sleep 50
# Your code ends

kill $PID

The dots are not actually connected to the processing, but it keeps the user happy ;):p:cool:

Robin

6

I am glad you mentioned the last line as I could see no way in which plotting dots on the screen would be related to any operational task in question. ;o)
Similary the OPs flashing text method. Both have the same flaw......

I wonder what happens if the operational task goes into some kind of strange locked up loop? (Rhetorical.)

7 
blink=$(tput blink) reset=$(tput sgr0) 
printf "%s" "${blink}Archiving...${reset}"

This works... but the same as what I setup where after the process it keeps blinking. I'll check out some of the other responses.

actually, what if I were to do something like this?

blink=$(tput blink) reset=$(tput sgr0) printf "%s" "${blink}Archiving...${reset}\Archiving..."

that's not quite right but where I'm trying to replace the line with another line when the process is complete... how would I do that?

8

You cannot set variables local to a shell builtin command, like printf . You could do something like this perhaps:

blink=$(tput blink) reset=$(tput sgr0)
printf "%s" "${blink}"
some_utility
printf "%s" "${reset}"
9

By:

printf "%s\r" "Cursor is back at line start"

hth

---------- Post updated at 23:03 ---------- Previous update was at 22:57 ----------

Comes to mind, maybe i should provide an untar method for my tui-tar? (old screenshot, filesize is now centered, and status (ok/bad) in color.
During the 2nd example i pressed enter a few times, to show the 'animation' on the screenshot.

Seems there is a need for it?
Any suggestions? (ideas how to display the 'output' (progress) of untar'ing? )

10

Hi.

See also thread need suggestion how to use the progress bar while executing shell for some suggestions on over-writing, bars and spinners ... cheers, drl

11

Thanks guys! Lots to look over here...