Resume bash script after reboot

Quick technique you can use to resume bash script after system reboot.

By Subash Adhikari · 11 December 2017 · 1 min read

DevOps

Written in 2017. Commands, prices, and links in this piece may be out of date.

I often write bash scripts to automate common tasks in my projects. Sometimes the script makes changes that need a reboot, and once the machine comes back up the script has to resume from where it left off.

The script below creates a temporary file that acts as a flag, so the script can tell whether it's resuming after a reboot. It also temporarily adds a line to .bashrc or .zshrc so the script runs automatically after the reboot. When the script resumes, it removes the temporary file and the extra line from bashrc or zshrc.

bash

# filename: reload_bash_shell.sh
 
# check if the reboot flag file exists.
# We created this file before rebooting.
if [ ! -f /var/run/resume-after-reboot ]; then
  echo "running script for the first time.."
 
  # run your scripts here
 
  # Preparation for reboot
  script="bash /reload_bash_shell.sh"
 
  # add this script to zsh so it gets triggered immediately after reboot
  # change it to .bashrc if using bash shell
  echo "$script" >> ~/.zshrc
 
  # create a flag file to check if we are resuming from reboot.
  sudo touch /var/run/resume-after-reboot
 
  echo "rebooting.."
  # reboot here
 
else
  echo "resuming script after reboot.."
 
  # Remove the line that we added in zshrc
  sed -i '/bash/d' ~/.zshrc
 
  # remove the temporary file that we created to check for reboot
  sudo rm -f /var/run/resume-after-reboot
 
  # continue with rest of the script
fi

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Resume bash script after reboot

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