Can I modify a bash script (.sh) file while it is running?

Solution 1:

When you make changes to your script, you make the changes on the disk(hard disk- the permanent storage); when you execute the script, the script is loaded to your memory(RAM).

So, the changes that you make to the script will not affect the running script, it will run the version you executed before making those changes.

However, when you execute the changed script again without terminating the previously running instance, there will be two instances of the script- one which has the changes and the old one.

Be warned that the resources that the script uses and modifies will conflict. For example, if you are modifying a file using the script, the script that runs later will not be able to open that file for writing and fail to execute correctly.

Update: Thanks to Registered User for pointing me to a better answer on Unix.stackexchange.com.

Depending upon the size of the script and the compiler/interpreter in question, the script is loaded partially/completely. So, if the script is not completely loaded, the changes that you make to your script will reflect on the running instance once the part of the script is loaded into memory.

So, it is not recommended to change your script on the disk which is currently running for unpredictable output: First stop the running instance and then modify your script and then re-execute the script.

Solution 2:

this needs to be updated, above answers are now only partially correct:

with the current version of bash, modifying a script on-disk while it is running will cause bash to "try" to load the changes into memory and take these on in the running script. if your changes come after the currently executing line, the new lines will be loaded and executed. but, this is a guess by bash and it may get it right or wrong.

the better way to do this is the following sequence of actions: 1) load the script into memory 2) delete the script from disk 3) write a new script to disk by deleting the disk version first, the memory version loses its links to it so that when you supply a new version in step 3, no attempt by bash will be made to load the new contents into the memory version.

Solution 3:

I'll add something that I think has not been said in the other answers. Much depends on just how you edit the file. Doing echo "stuff" >file from the shell (another instance) will indeed overwrite the file, I think. But if you edit the file with for instance emacs and then save, this will not happen. Instead here the editor renames the old file to some backup name (maybe actually removing the previous backup), and then write its modified buffer contents as a new file with the (now libreated) old name. Since the shell (or other interpreter) reading the script will almost certainly open the file only once, it is thereafter independent of the whereabouts of the file name, it just continues to read the physical disk file (identified by inode number) that was associated to the file name at the time of opening. So even if it reads the script in blocks (which would be the easiest solution if using buffered text I/O), it would continue to read the lines from the old instance of the file, which is likely to not change by your editing.