Debugging suggestions

Much of the activity associated with scripts attached to buttons happens behind the scenes, and, as a result, the normal attack of populating the script with debugging output is not effective. There are a couple of alternatives possible.

One approach is to have the shell script send e-mail messages out to a particular user account. Although this works, it employs a circuitous route to the data you are looking to gather. You also have to put up with a certain amount of system delay, and must deal with the chance that the messages will not be received in the same order they were sent.

An alternative is to have the scripts append their output to a debugging file in a known location. If you use this approach, you must remember to insure that the file has full read/write permissions.

A third option is to deliberately stall the script in action and send the output directly to the screen. The sample script $RAZOR_HOME/examples/spill will do exactly this. It captures a variety of data into a temporary file, and then invokes an xterm running vi on the file. This has the added advantage of suspending the related Razor program while you are examining the output; the program will not continue until you exit the vi editor.

NOTE: The spill script mentioned above is provided for illustrative purposes only. It is expected that you will be able to take the methods and themes presented in it and expand upon them for your own needs.