Re: [Bacula-users] How to run bconsole commands in a bash for loop?

[Josh F. <jf...@ja...>]

On 9/16/25 12:39, Gary Dale wrote:
> Internet searches have been futile. The ones that actually mention 
> bconsole suggest what I've been trying to do should work, but it doesn't.
>
> Through my initial setup struggles, my storage volumes have become a 
> disjointed mess. To make matters worse, there are close to a hundred 
> volumes showing "Error" when I "List Volumes". I have only about 20 
> that show up as physical disk volumes. And automatic volume creation 
> seems to be failing. All my backups for the last 5 days have failed.
>
> To fix this, I'm trying to go back to the start (without purging and 
> reinstalling bacula) by removing everything to date. However, I can't 
> do that for the volumes - way to many of them. So I'm trying to run a 
> bash script to cycle through them to purge them.
>
> I've found multiple answers that suggest using a bash for loop then 
> doing something like:
>         echo "purge volume ${volname} yes" | bconsole  - where 
> $volname is created by the for loop -
> should work. And it does actually to a point. It will invoke the 
> "purge volume" dialogue then asks which pool to use. Inserting the 
> pool number after the volume command (e.g. echo "purge volume 2 
> ${volname} yes" | bconsole) doesn't work either. Nor does inserting \n 
> into the echoed command at various points.
>
> Being able to put bconsole commands into a bash script seems like 
> something that will be generally useful but I can't find a way to make 
> it work.

The following is a simple script to allow passing answers for bconsole's 
questions. For example, my query command 8 lists volumes needed for a 
restore, and I can list for a client by:

[root@cnode1 ~]# bcommand query 8 : joshnuc-fd
cmd2 = joshnuc-fd
Connecting to Director bacula.pvct.lan:9101
1000 OK: 10002 s3-dir Version: 15.0.2 (21 March 2024)
Enter a period to cancel a command.
query 8
Automatically selected Catalog: MyCatalog
Using Catalog "MyCatalog"
No results to list.
No results to list.
Enter Client Name: joshnuc-fd
+
|
+
+
+
|
+
+
+
|
+
+
+-----------------+
| VolumeName      |
+-----------------+
| vchanger1_17_19 |
| vchanger1_9_18  |
| inc_8           |
| inc_4           |
| inc_9           |
| inc_5           |
| inc_0           |
+-----------------+
No results to list.
No results to list.
You have messages.
quit



[root@cnode1 scripts]# cat bcommand
#!/bin/sh
bconsole=/usr/sbin/bconsole
cmd1=$1
cmd2=
shift
while [ ! "z$1" == "z:" ] && (( $# )) ; do
   cmd1="$cmd1 "$1
   shift
done
if [ "z$1" == "z:" ]; then
   shift
   while (( $# )); do
     cmd2="$cmd2 "$1
     shift
   done
fi
echo cmd2 = $cmd2
cmd2a=`echo $cmd2`
$bconsole <<EOD
$cmd1
$cmd2a
quit
EOD
exit 0



>
> Any ideas?
>
>
>
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