Monitor long running task

When I run a long running command and can't be bothered to check up on it.

I start it with nohup so I can log out. It returns a which pid it was started with

bash-2.05$ nohup [command] > log.log &
Sending output to nohup.out
[1] 1247

Then I start a monitor script that mails me when the process is finished

bash-2.05$ nohup ./mail_when_finished.sh 1247 &


Script (works on solaris):
--------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/sh
trap '' 1
pid=$1

bail_out () {
mail name@domain.com <Subject: My_Job has finished
Importance: high
X-Priority: 1


My_Job has finished running.
.
!done
exit 0
}

check_it () {

while :
do
ps -p $pid > /dev/null 2>&1
case $? in
0) sleep 120 ;;
*) bail_out; exit 1 ;;
esac
done
}

check_it

---------------------
I took and modified the script from http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/3205-lightwight-process-monitor.html

Installing Ubuntu on MacBookPro (SantaRosa)

I bought a MacBook in a weak moment but realized that OS X is overhyped.

Therefore I decided to install ubuntu 7.10. This are the steps I took (after a lot of googling).

There are a lot of information but none worked 100% for me.

The whole problem was that when I installed it, the screen was just empty or it stopped at "running local boot scripts".

1. Made a backup... with time machine.
2. used boot camp to make a new partition.
   
3. installed refit
   
4. Downloaded ubuntu (after a lot of trying I used the "alt"-version 64 bit)
   
5. When the install selection window is shown. Press F6. You will get boot command that you can edit. Remove "splash" and "quiet"
   
6. Start in safe graphics mode
7. After some time it will stop on "running local boot scripts"
8. do a control-c and on the prompt write "startx"
9. wait for a few minutes and you will get the "normal" install window.
10. Install as normal, remember to choose the correct keyboard
11. Important. Do not allocate 100% of your partition. It seems like Ubuntu needs to save some on the harddisk.

Then after the reboot, you will need to remove the splash boot commando again.

Now I hope that I can follow the documentation on the web. I'll get back on that.