Re: 100% cpu with: while true ;do read < /dev/null ;done

[Jo King]

> thanks for reply. agree it's not a
> bug with bash.
> 
> i am inclinded to agree with the comments but bash is
> popular and attracts a lot of newbies into scripting - a bit
> of smart 'correction' of their wrong ways would at least
> keep the cpu available for other processes (even a sleep for
> 100ms would make a huge difference).
> 
> for info the script is firelog (network/firewall frontend)
> - written by a non-advanced bash coder, though i have come
> across similar with ksh on solaris/aix in the past.
> 
> 

--- On Thu, 22/10/09, Pierre Gaston <pierre.gaston@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Pierre Gaston <pierre.gaston@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: 100% cpu with: while true ;do read < /dev/null ;done
> To: "Jo King" <jokiiii@yahoo.co.uk>
> Cc: bug-bash@gnu.org
> Date: Thursday, 22 October, 2009, 7:08
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 12:15 AM,
> Jo King <jokiiii@yahoo.co.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> 
> Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not
> change]:
> 
> Machine: i686
> 
> OS: linux-gnu
> 
> Compiler: gcc
> 
> Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash'
> -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686'
> -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu'
> -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu'
> -DCONF_VENDOR='pc'
> -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/local/share/locale'
> -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.
>  -I. -I./include -I./lib   -g -O2
> 
> 
> 
> uname output: Linux puppypc 2.6.30.5 #1 SMP Tue Sep 1
> 15:48:26 GMT-8 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
> 
> Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
> 
> 
> 
> Bash Version: 3.2
> 
> Patch Level: 48
> 
> Release Status: release
> 
> 
> 
> Description:
> 
>         [See subject for test case.
> 
> Many scripts sit in a loop asking for user input - if
> script is
> 
> run in bg/without tty (by mistake) then high cpu usage
> results]
> 
> 
> 
> Repeat-By:
> 
>         [while true ;do read </dev/null ;done]
> 
> 
> 
> Fix:
> 
>         [ bash/the read code could
> 
>  detect there's no stdin and sleep for 1-2 seconds]
> 
> Script waiting for user input in the background will be
> stopped on read, and it will not result in a busy loop.
> 
> A script that expects a tty should test it with something
> like:
> 
> 
> 
> if ! [ -t 0 ]; then echo "this script must be run in a
> terminal"; exit 1;fi  
> 
> I too believe that the scripts must be fixed, not bash
> 
>