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We are using groovy to build our java applications. The goal of the groovy script is to checkout from SVN, run MVN, download release notes from Jira, allow user to edit release notes, then upload everything to S3 for public consumption.

My question comes in on the editing of the release notes. I would like to have groovy run vim on a txt file and allow the user to edit the file and quit vim. On vim exit I would like the script to continue along. This should run on a headless linux server. I have it working locally on my mac using the open command but we are moving our builds to a central AWS linux server.

Something like this is what I'm looking for:

println "Downloading release notes..."
"vi RELEASE-NOTES.txt".execute().waitFor()
println "Uploading the edited release notes here"

FWIW the solution I am using on Mac OS is:

"open -eW RELEASE-NOTES.txt".execute().waitFor();

It opens TextEdit, allows me to edit and save the file, on quitting TextEdit the app moves on and uploads my edited file.

TriArctic Designs
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  • I assume the `vi` method doesn't work for some unspecified reason? – tim_yates Aug 02 '13 at 19:58
  • Sorry, I should know better than to just say "it doesn't work..." Basically, since vi takes over the terminal, it looks like java doesn't support that. So it either hangs or just opens then closes depending on the different things I have tried. – TriArctic Designs Aug 05 '13 at 16:21

2 Answers2

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I think the VI solution fails because you no longer have a console (but you weren't very specific about this).

I'm embarassed to say I don't know how to fix this on a Unix machine, on DOS I would use "command /c vi" to run it in a new command shell, but even then it might be a trick to give that shell a "Console" for you to input in (in windows it would open up a new window).

Something like what you said MIGHT work if you piped the user input/output to the app stdin/out, but I bet some linux guru knows a better way.

Problem is that "Groovy" owns the console allocated to user I/O. If you could put groovy in the background (equivilent of ctrl-z) or switch to another console (perhaps using Screen or Linux's multiple consoles) you might be able to pull it off, but I probably wouldn't try it myself.

Redirecting I/O might be a better bet, or just go find a non-gui text editor written in Java and integrate it (Might be your best bet).

Bill K
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It doesn't seem possible, as per this answer, because java's way of handling processes is just piping streams of bytes, which doesn't relate to piping video/tty/whatever. A possible solution is to open a new window with xterm. Since you are on a headless linux, i'm not sure this will work. Are you connecting via SSH? What about trying connect to the server using ssh -X and then run the command? (Or does the "headless" implies the minus X doesn't work? :-) ) 

println "Downloading release notes..."
['xterm', '-e', 'vi RELEASE_NOTES.txt'].execute().waitFor()
println "Uploading the edited release notes here"

And... have you thought about writing such a script in shell? Seems a bit more suited, IMO.

I think @Bill K's suggestion would be great, but after a quick googling i couldn't found any java CLI editor.

Community
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Will
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  • Yes, breaking it out into its own shell script is probably the way to go. We just already have this groovy script and were adding this one bit after the fact. Also, since it worked on the Mac and all of the devs on this project use a Mac it was kind of low hanging fruit. – TriArctic Designs Aug 05 '13 at 16:27
  • TextEdit is graphical, isn't it? – Will Aug 05 '13 at 16:40