How do I show the terminal after a script is executed at startup?

Question

I'm executing a bash script through a custom created service. At user login, the script is executed. I can verify that the program is running with the ps -ef command.

The only thing I want to have happen is, I want the Terminal to open and display the output of the script execution.

I am new to Linux. Still getting to know things. Not a very good experience so far.

Running Ubuntu 18.04.

Answer 1

Let me use this simple example to demonstrate one way of having that done:

1. Two scripts:

   • launcher.sh, and
   • sample.sh

2. Content of scripts:

   • launcher.sh:

     #!/usr/bin/env bash
     gnome-terminal --working-directory="/home/georgek/Documents/askubuntu" -- '--rcfile ./setup.bash ./launcher.sh'
     

   • sample.sh:

     #!/usr/bin/env bash
     du -h ./; read line;
     

3. Call sample.sh from launcher.sh like this: launcher.sh and that will pass the file sample.sh to the terminal, note: the read line prevents gnome-terminal from closig till you press the ENTER key. Modify as it as you like.

NOTE: - -- is preferred to -x as reported by bash - --working-directory="/home/georgek/Documents/askubuntu" tells terminal to run command from this directory.

• Use this file to set variables, from man bash:

  --rcfile file Execute commands from file instead of the system wide initialization file /etc/bash.bashrc and the standard personal initialization file ~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive (see INVOCATION below).

Answer 2

Best approach would be to install screen or byobu for nicer UI, and run your script there:

screen -S sessionname -d -m /path/to/script

This will let you reattach to session with

screen -r sessionname

Considering the fact that you're starting it from systemd service, you may need to have two things done: either allow multiuser session for everyone or configure individual access only for your username. This will need to have custom config file and pass that to screen with -c flag.

See also:

• https://superuser.com/q/454907/418028

• https://serverfault.com/a/155343/363611