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Version CloverDX 6.7.0

ExecuteScript

ExecuteScript 64x64

Short description

Ports

Metadata

ExecuteScript attributes

Details

Examples

Best practices

See also

Short description

ExecuteScript is a component that runs either shell scripts or scripts interpreted by a selected interpreter. It either runs a script only once or repeatedly for each incoming record. Each incoming record can redefine almost all parameters of a run including the script itself.

Ports

Port type Number Required Description Metadata

Input

0

⨯

Parameters of a script run (including a script itself if needed).

Any

Output

0

⨯

A component input and results of a script run.

Any

Error

1

⨯

A component input and results of a script run. Records for scripts that cannot run or return 1.

Any

Metadata

ExecuteScript does not propagate metadata from left to right or from right to left.

This component has metadata templates available. See general details on metadata templates.

The metadata template ExecuteScript_RunConfig available on the first input port is described in Input mapping fields description.

The metadata template ExecuteScript_RunResult available on output ports is described in Output mapping fields description.

ExecuteScript attributes

Attribute Req Description Possible values

Basic

Script

no

Code of a script to be executed. If the interpreter attribute value is kept default, the script must be code of a shell script. Thus, it can easily be used for running one or more system commands. Otherwise, the code format depends on a chosen interpreter.

Script URL

no

A URL of a script to be executed. If the interpreter attribute value is kept default, the script must be code of a shell script. Thus, it can easily be used for running one or more system commands. Otherwise, the code format depends on the chosen interpreter. If both the Script and Script URL attributes are specified, only Script URL is used.

Script charset

no

This character encoding is used for an executed script file. A script file reference is specified either in the Script URL attribute or a temporary batch file is created automatically from the Script attribute.

The default encoding depends on DEFAULT_CHARSET_DECODER in defaultProperties.

UTF-8 (default) | <other encodings>

Working directory

no

A working directory of the executed script. All relative paths used inside the script will be interpreted with respect to this directory. By default, it is set to the root of the CloverDX project containing the graph.

Timeout

no

A limit for script execution (in milliseconds). The limit can be set in other units than milliseconds. See Time Intervals.

When a script runs longer than the limit, the components terminates it. In this case in the output, record fields are set as follows: exitValue is set to 1, reachedTimeout to true and duration is greater or equal to timeout.

0 (unlimited) | positive number

Input Mapping

no

Input mapping defines how data from an incoming token overrides default component settings. See input mapping fields description

CTL transformation

Output Mapping

no

Output mapping maps results of successful script executions to the first output port. See output mapping fields description

CTL transformation

Error Mapping

no

Error mapping maps results of unsuccessful scripts to the second output port. See output mapping fields description

CTL transformation

Redirect Error Output

no

By default, results of failed scripts are sent to the second output port (error port). If this switch is set to true, results of unsuccessful scripts are sent to the first output port in the same way as successful scripts.

false (default) | true

Advanced

Interpreter

no

Set an interpreter to be used for running a script. When an interpreter is executed, ${} is substituted with a name of a temporary batch file that contains a copy of the script. If an interpreter is sensitive to an extension of a script file, it is necessary to set Script file extension property so that a temporary file will have the right extension.

A path to an interpreter followed by ${}. By default a script is interpreted by a system shell (e.g. cmdin Windows and sh in Linux).

Environment variables

no

Sets environment variables values in the script. It allows either setting them or appending to them. Appending to a non-existing variable leads to defining it and setting its value. Note that variable values are only visible inside of the script, i.e. setting PATH cannot be used for setting a path to an interpreter. Variable values set in this property can be overridden by mapping of input to EnvironmentVariables metadata in an input mapping dialog.

If you are appending a value to the system variable (e.g. $PATH), the correct system-dependent path delimiter should be used at the beginning of the appended value (colon on Linux, semicolon on Windows).

Standard input

no

Contents of a standard input that will be sent to the script. Be aware that if the script expects more input lines than available, it may hang.

string

Standard input file URL

no

A file URL to contents of a standard input that will be sent to the script. Be aware that if the script expects more input lines than available, it may hang.

Standard output file URL

no

A file URL of a file to store a standard output of the script. The file content is either rewritten or appended depending on the append flag.

Error output file URL

no

A file URL of a file to store an error output of the script. The file content is either rewritten or appended depending on the append flag.

Append

no

Sets whether a standard output and error output written into files (Standard output file URL and Error output file URL attributes) should rewrite existing content or it should be appended.

false (default) | true

Data charset

no

Character encoding used to encode a standard input passed from an input port and to decode a standard and error output to be passed to output ports.

UTF-8 (default) | <other encodings>

Script file extension

no

Sets an extension of a batch file that is given to the interpreter (its name is substituted for ${} in the interpreter setting).

bat (default) | string

Stop processing on fail

no

By default, any failed script causes the component to stop executing other scripts and information about skipped tokens is sent to the error output port. This behavior can be disabled by this attribute. Note: this function works only if an edge is connected to the component’s error port.

true (default) | false

The contents of the Script attribute are copied to a temporary batch file. On Microsoft Windows, it is often useful to start the script with @echo off to disable echoing the executed commands.

Details

Input mapping fields description

Output mapping fields description

ExecuteScript runs a script with a given interpreter (default system shell by default).

When there is no edge connected to an input port, the component runs the script only once. One output record is produced in this case.

When there are records coming to an input port, one script execution per record is performed and one output record per script execution is produced.

If the script is successful, the component continues with processing of the next input tokens. Otherwise, component stops executing other scripts and from now on, all incoming tokens are ignored and information about ignored tokens is sent to the error output port. This behavior can be changed in the Stop processing on fail parameter.

The output record contains all important information about a script run (times, exit value, error reports and standard output). Mapping of these values to user-defined output metadata can be defined in Output Mapping and Error Mapping attributes. If the Output mapping is empty, fields of the RunStatus record are mapped to the output by name.

All script execution parameters can be set via input records using the Input Mapping attribute. The mapping sets which values for the input are used as script execution parameters. Input and output mapping are common to job control components.

A single run of a script is performed as follows:

  • The script code is copied to a temporary batch file.

  • An interpreter is run with a ${} string substituted with the name of the temporary file.

  • When the script is over, the output record is produced and sent to the first output port for successful runs and to the second output port for unsuccessful runs.

For more detailed information see attribute description.

Input Mapping Fields Description

Input records can be mapped to two different metadata: RunConfig and EnvironmentVariables.

Fields of RunConfig have the following functionality:

Field Description

script

Overrides the attribute Script.

scriptURL

Overrides the attribute Script URL.

scriptCharset

Overrides the attribute Script charset.

interpreter

Overrides the attribute Interpreter.

workingDirectory

Overrides the attribute Working Directory.

timeout

Overrides the attribute Timeout.

environmentVariables

Overrides the attribute Environment Variables. It is expected that the value contains a list of variable assignments delimited with ";". An assignment with a simple "=" symbol assigns a value to an assigned environment variable. An assignment with a "+=" symbol appends a value to an assigned environment variable.

stdIn

Overrides the attribute Standard Input.

stdInFileURL

Overrides the attribute Standard Input File URL.

stdOutFileURL

Overrides the attribute Standard Output File URL.

errOutFileURL

Overrides the attribute Error Output File URL.

append

Overrides the attribute Append.

dataCharset

Overrides the attribute Data charset.

scriptFileExtension

Overrides the attribute Script File Extension.

In Input mapping, you can use the $out.0.script field to create a dynamic command line. Just map a script and its parameters onto the field. Example:

$out.0.script = "md5.exe " + $in.0.filePath;

Environment variables provided to the executed script can be defined in three different ways:

  1. Use the component’s Environmental variables attribute for static definition of environment variables. Variable names and values are defined once for all script executions.

  2. The output record EnvironmentVariables populated in Input mapping is the second way how environment variables can be defined. Set of variable names is still statically defined by the record structure, but values of variables can be derived from input tokens.

  3. The most complex way how environment variables can be defined is to populate the environmentVariables field in the output record RunConfig in Input mapping. Value of this field has the same syntax and meaning as the Environment variables attribute. Set of variables as well as their values can be defined fully dynamically in this case.

If you want to append a string to an environment variable in Input mapping, use the getEnvironmentVariables() CTL function. Example:

$out.1.PATH = getEnvironmentVariables()["PATH"] + ":" + $in.0.additionalPath;
Output mapping fields description

If output mapping is empty, fields of the input record and result record are mapped to the output by name.

Field Description

stdOut

Standard output of a script.

errOut

Error output of a script.

startTime

Start time of a script.

stopTime

Stop time of a script.

duration

Duration of a script. (duration = stopTime - startTime)

exitValue

Value returned by the script. Typically, 0 means no error, non-zero values stand for errors.

reachedTimeout

Boolean determining whether the script reached timeout.

errException

If the script call finishes with an error, it may contain an exception that caused the error. This happens only in a situation when the script has not started (e.g. the path to the script is not valid) or its run has been interrupted (e.g. when a timeout has been reached).

errMessage

Message reported by the exception in errException.
Difference between SystemExecute and ExecuteScript

SystemExecute uses a data-oriented approach. It allows you to stream data from and to the script.

ExecuteScript executes scripts in steps. It allows you to receive scripts from an input edge and execute them one by one.

Examples

Run shell script

Using timeout

Running scripts one by one
Run shell script

This example shows way to run a simple script. The script is specified in the component.

Use ExecuteScript to run last command.

Solution

Attach an edge to the first output port of ExecuteScript component.

Configure the ExecuteScript component in the following way.

Attribute Value

Script

last

Interpreter

/bin/bash ${}
Using timeout

Scripts may hang or run too long. This example shows how to set timeout in ExecuteScript.

Use ExecuteScript to run my_calculation program, which is on the PATH. The program should not run longer than 5 seconds.

Solution
Attribute Value

Script

my_calculation

Timeout (ms)

5s

Interpreter

/bin/bash ${}

If the timeout is specified without units, it is in millisecond. It can be set in other units. See Time intervals.

If you need to terminate the script, but the graph should not fail, connect an edge to the second output port of ExecuteScript.

Running scripts one by one

ExecuteScript allows you to receive scripts from an input edge. This example shows a way to execute scripts one by one.

Execute shell commands received from an input edge.

Solution

Connect edges to input and output ports. The commands to be executed are received in the script field.

Attribute Value

Input mapping

 
function integer transform() {
    $out.0.script = $in.0.script;

    return ALL;
}

Interpreter

/bin/bash ${}

Best practices

We recommend users to specify Data charset.

If the script is in an external file (specified with Script URL), we recommend users to explicitly specify Script charset too.

See also

SystemExecute

Common properties of components

Specific attribute types

Common properties of Job Control