Zild

Zild is a command-line tool that enables developers to detach their terminal from processes that are running in the shell, and keep track of these processes over time. Kind of like forever except for one-off jobs that don't need repetition. Zild also lets you review launched shell processes with a web interface at https://www.zild.io.

Links

Github: https://github.com/aashidham/zild
NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/zild
Website: https://www.zild.io

Prerequisites

You need node (v6.9.2+, untested for prior versions) and npm installed. For instructions on how to do this, checkout our guide for installing node and npm with and without admin privileges.

Only tested on OSX 10 and Ubuntu 14.04. Probably won't work on Windows, because uses unix domain sockets.

This repo will add two commands to your shell: z and zild. z is only for launching jobs, while zild does everything else (inspecting jobs, deleting them, listing them, etc.).

By default, zild sockets and logs are stored at ~/.zild/. All stdout / stderr for a zild process also gets sent to the zild.io webservice.

(Note: If you already have z used for a different (popular) binary, let me know by filing an issue. I don't know of any popular tools that use z as the name for their projects, but I could be mistaken. You can change the name of both zild and z by altering package.json.)

Getting started

Let's go:

$ npm install -g  zild 
$ zild register # you can also do zild login if you already have an account 
$ z python run_long_process.py
[['python run_long_process.py' (PID: 65053) in progress. It has zild id 'runlongprocesspy'. Press any key to detach.]]

(Note: z doesn't take any options (other than some environmental variables, see "Runtime options" below). Anything typed after z is taken as if you are typing it into the shell directly. If you do z --help or z --version, you will just be running $ --help directly, which is probably not what you want. Run zild --help instead.)

You can inspect the runlongprocesspy process by going to https://www.zild.io/jobs. As zild tells you, you can press any keystroke to detach runlongprocesspy from the terminal.

Managing zild processes

You can now manage runlongprocesspy through zild. In order to view all the logs of a process so far:

$ zild log runlongprocesspy

To reattach to the process and view its STDOUT / STDERR in real time (basically the tail -f of the process):

$ zild attach runlongprocesspy

To get the PID of the process:

$ zild pid runlongprocesspy

To kill the process (like running kill -9 $PID):

$ zild kill runlongprocesspy

You dont need to remember that the process you ran has id runlongprocesspy. You can list your currently running processes:

$ zild ls # `zild list` works too

And you can also list all the zild processes you have ever run, including stopped / killed jobs:

$ zild ls -a

Runtime env options

If you want your process to immediately detach from the controlling terminal:

$ ZILD_IMMEDIATE_DETACH=1 z python run_long_process.py

For this to be the default setup every time you run z:

$ echo "ZILD_IMMEDIATE_DETACH=1" >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.bash_profile

You can also set the .zild/ project directory to be elsewhere on your computer (default is ~):

$ echo "ZILD_ROOT=/home/aashidham/zild_logs/" >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.bash_profile