Call a function using nohup

Question

I am trying to call a function using nohup like this:

function1(){
    while true 
    do
        echo "function1"
        sleep 1
    done
}

nohup function1 & 
# ...... some other code

but may be the function isn't seen by nohup and I get this error:

nohup: failed to run command `function1' : No such file or dictionary

I don't want to create new sh file for my function. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

Another solution:

function background {     echo TEST } export -f background   nohup bash -c background & 

Answer 2

nohup applies to commands and not to script functions.

For example, the script (say func.sh) that contains function1() should call the function-:

function1(){     while true      do         echo "function1"         sleep 1     done  }  function1 

Now call the script func.sh with nohup in the background-:

nohup ./func.sh & 

If you need to disable the hangup signal from within the script use the shell built-in trap. The example ignores SIGHUP but can be used to ignore others (e.g. SIGINT).

trap "" HUP   # script will ignore HANGUP signal 

Answer 3

I find a working solution for me - define the function in a file (e.g. .functions) then run the function with nohup:

nohup bash -c "source .functions; function1" &

Tested on Ubuntu 13.04.

Answer 4

Since nohup must be supplied with a filename not a function as a workaround this is what can be done:

function1(){
    while true 
    do
        echo "function1"
        sleep 1
    done

}

echo "$@" | grep -q -- "--nohup" && function1 || nohup $0 "$@" --nohup & 

So when this script gets called with the current arguments:

• `echo "$@" | grep -q -- "--nohup" will return an error status so
• nohup $0 "$@" --nohup & will be invoked, which will invoke this script passing the current arguments and a new argument --nohup

And when this script is called with argument --nohup

• `echo "$@" | grep -q -- "--nohup" will return with zero status (success) so
• function1 will be invoked