[SOLVED] Script won't run using key bindings (JWM centric)

jamtat · 01-03-2018, 03:29 PM

This post will refer to a GNU/Linux desktop system running Arch and using the JWM window manager. I found a really nice little script at http://www.thelinuxrain.com/articles...r-translations and am trying to implement it on my system. I installed missing dependencies, copied over the script to my system, then chmod'd it. Testing from the command line reveals that it works as intended. Here is what the script looks like:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
xclip -o | trans -e google -b \
| tee >(yad --geometry=300x800+1550+100 --text-info  --wrap) >(xclip -i)
exit 0

However, to make the script operate optimally, I should invoke it using keystrokes. JWM is quite congenial to implementing custom key bindings and I've already set up more than one of these for running some simple little scripts I wrote for my system. Yet, when I try to implement keystrokes to run the script referenced above, I am unable to get it to work (nothing happens when I press the relevant keys). I've tried various permutations and have been over my .jwmrc file many times, but I cannot get it to work and am unable thus far to comprehend why I'm having these problems invoking the script using keystrokes.

In an attempt to do some troubleshooting, I redirected stderr to a file (my current key binding looks as follows:

Code:

<Key mask="4" key="t">exec:trans-paste.sh >>trans-paste_err.txt 2>&1</Key>

) The output written to that file, after having pressed the specified key combination, is

Code:

/path/to/trans-paste.sh: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/path/to/trans-paste.sh: line 4: `xclip -o | trans -e google -b | tee >(yad --geometry=300x800+1550+100 --text-info --wrap) >(xclip -i) exit 0'

Doing some searches on that error message led me to believe I should escape the parenthesis or quote them. I'm not real bash saavy, but my attempts at trying those sorts of things have not brought resolution. Of course I could well be doing something wrong.

So can anyone here provide any pointers on why I am seeing these results? Perhaps this is something peculiar to the way scripts are interpreted within JWM? Not sure where to turn for diagnosis of this issue, which has proved thus far to exceed my rather paltry technical acumen. TIA

ondoho · 01-04-2018, 05:45 AM

interesting.
i have tried the script, and it works.
if i change the first line from '#!/bin/bash' to '#!/bin/dash' i get a similar error:

Code:

/home/mus/bin/trans-paste: 6: /home/mus/bin/trans-paste: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

can you post output of

Code:

ls -l /bin/bash
bash --version

you might also want to try to tell jwm explicitely to use bash, like this:

Code:

bash -c trans-paste.sh

you can incorporate the logging into the script:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
exec &gt; trans-paste_err.txt 2&gt;&amp;1
...

jamtat · 01-04-2018, 08:32 AM

Thanks for your response, ondoho.

Code:

ls -l /bin/bash
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 828320 Feb 14  2017 /bin/bash

and

Code:

bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.4.12(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)

I know I tried the bash -c option at some point--as in

Code:

<Key mask="4" key="t">exec:bash -c trans-paste.sh</Key>

but I should probably give it another shot; I've tried so many variations that it's hard to keep track of which and the results of each.

Actually, just now trying the above key binding entry I now have success--thanks for the suggestion! I guess I had previously incorporated the bash -c option into the script itself rather than within the key binding line.