Sending commands to external terminal (Linux)

[KianV]

I am trying to automate certain tasks from PB, using the native OS terminal, but without success.
As an example:

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rp = RunProgram("xterm", "", "", #PB_Program_Open | #PB_Program_Write)
WriteProgramStringN(rp,"df -h")
CloseProgram(rp)

I expected this to open the terminal, then write the command 'df -h' to it. The terminal opens, but the string is not passed.
I have also tried passing the command as a parameter,i.e.

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rp = RunProgram("xterm", "df -h", "", #PB_Program_Open | #PB_Program_Write)

, but this time the terminal does not even open.
Any help would be much appreciated.

[Marc56us]

Hi,

xterm is a GUI program (a terminal), not a shell (command line tool), you can't send command to it with WriteProgramStringN. An equivalent to sendmessage should be used.

df (Disk Free) is not a command shell, it's a command line software (a binary like an exe in Windows). You can't use it as parameter.

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$ file df
df: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, ...

Use it directly or in a shell

If you want to do something, do like example in help

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Compiler = RunProgram("df", "-h", "", #PB_Program_Open | #PB_Program_Read)
Output$ = ""
If Compiler
  While ProgramRunning(Compiler)
    If AvailableProgramOutput(Compiler)
      Output$ + ReadProgramString(Compiler) + Chr(13)
    EndIf
  Wend
  Output$ + Chr(13) + Chr(13)
  Output$ + "Exitcode: " + Str(ProgramExitCode(Compiler))
  
  CloseProgram(Compiler)
EndIf

MessageRequester("Output", Output$)

[KianV]

Thanks Marc56us for the very fullsome reply.
What I am actually trying to accomplish is significantly more in depth than calculating disk space.(It just seemed like a nice trivial example to be getting on with.)
At least now know why it wasn't working.
I think I shall resort to writing out a shell script, then run that using RunProgram().
Many thanks.
Kian