Diff for "BashFAQ/034"

Differences between revisions 1 and 6 (spanning 5 versions)

Can I do a spinner in Bash?

Sure!

i=1
sp="/-\|"
echo -n ' '
while true
do
    printf "\b${sp:i++%${#sp}:1}"
done

Each time the loop iterates, it displays the next character in the sp string, wrapping around as it reaches the end. (i is the position of the current character to display and ${#sp} is the length of the sp string).

The \b string is replaced by a 'backspace' character. Alternatively, you could play with \r to go back to the beginning of the line.

If you want it to slow down, put a sleep command inside the loop (after the printf).

If you already have a loop which does a lot of work, you can call the following function at the beginning of each iteration to update the spinner:

sp="/-\|"
sc=0
spin() {
   printf "\b${sp:sc++:1}"
   ((sc==${#sp})) && sc=0
}
endspin() {
   printf "\r%s\n" "$@"
}

until work_done; do
   spin
   some_work ...
done
endspin

A similar technique can be used to build progress bars.

-  ⇤ ← Revision 1 as of 2007-05-02 23:23:02 → 
  Size: 725
  Editor: redondos
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 6 as of 2009-12-09 20:52:29 → ⇥
  Size: 1064
  Editor: GreyCat
  Comment: link to 044
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 1:
-[[Anchor(faq34)]]
+<<Anchor(faq34)>>
 Line 3:
-Sure.
+Sure!
-Line 5:
+Line 6:
-    i=1
    sp="/-\|"
    echo -n ' '
    while true
    do
        echo -en "\b${sp:i++%${#sp}:1}"
    done
+i=1
sp="/-\|"
echo -n ' '
while true
do
    printf "\b${sp:i++%${#sp}:1}"
done
-Line 14:
+Line 15:
-You can also use \r instead of \b.  You can use pretty much any character sequence you want as well.  If you want it to slow down, put a {{{sleep}}} command inside the loop.
+Each time the loop iterates, it displays the next character in the `sp` string, wrapping around as it reaches the end.  (`i` is the position of the current character to display and `${#sp}` is the [[BashFAQ/007|length]] of the `sp` string).
-Line 16:
+Line 17:
-To use as a function called from a loop on every iteration, for example:
+The `\b` string is replaced by a 'backspace' character.  Alternatively, you could play with `\r` to go back to the beginning of the line.

If you want it to slow down, put a {{{sleep}}} command inside the loop (after the printf).

If you already have a loop which does a lot of work, you can call the following function at the beginning of each iteration to update the spinner:
-Line 21:
+Line 26:
-   echo -ne "\b${sp:sc++:1}"
   ((sc==4)) && sc=0
+   printf "\b${sp:sc++:1}"
   ((sc==${#sp})) && sc=0
-Line 24:
+Line 29:
+endspin() {
   printf "\r%s\n" "$@"
}

until work_done; do
   spin
   some_work ...
done
endspin
-Line 25:
+Line 39:
-When printing the next output line (ie when the spin is over) use: {{{ echo -e "\r$line" }}} or: {{{ echo -en '\r'; echo "$line" }}}
-Line 27:
+Line 40:
-A similar technique can be used to build progress bars.
+A similar technique can be used to build [[BashFAQ/044|progress bars]].