Bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device

bashlfssourcesuUbuntu

Trying to execute the source command using "lfs" user on ubuntu 14.04 and getting this:

root@linux:~/lfs# su lfs - -c "source ~/.bash_profile"
bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell

Any ideas?

Background info: I am following the LFS book, making a script out of it, so in my script which I execute with sudo, when it gets to this part, after creating the lfs user and his .bashrc and .bashprofile, I guess it is loading it.

Context:

echo "info: create 'lfs' group and user..."
groupadd -f lfs
id -u lfs &>/dev/null || useradd -s /bin/bash -g lfs -m -k /dev/null lfs
passwd -d -q lfs

echo "info: make 'lfs' own the 'tools' and 'sources' directories..."
chown lfs $LFS/tools
chown lfs $LFS/sources

echo "info: creating a clean '.bash_profile' as user 'lfs'..."
su lfs - -c "cat > ~/.bash_profile << \"EOF\"
exec env -i HOME=$HOME TERM=$TERM PS1='\u:\w\$ ' /bin/bash
EOF"

echo "info: creating a clean '.bashrc' as user 'lfs'..."
su lfs - -c "cat > ~/.bashrc << \"EOF\"
set +h
umask 022
LFS=/mnt/lfs
LC_ALL=POSIX
LFS_TGT=$(uname -m)-lfs-linux-gnu
PATH=/tools/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
export LFS LC_ALL LFS_TGT PATH
EOF"

su lfs - -c "source ~/.bash_profile"

Edit:

It has been suggested that my syntax is incorrect, I am not at my linux machine at the moment, so will try to use different syntax when I get the chance. However, for info, I got the syntax from the answer here: https://serverfault.com/questions/411307/cannot-set-terminal-process-group-during-su-to-another-user-as-login-shell

Best Answer

su - username runs the login shell of username as an interactive shell.
su username command arguments runs command arguments non-interactively under the account username.

You command su lfs - -c "source ~/.bash_profile" means run - -c "source ~/.bash_profile" as the user lfs non-interactively. Now the shell sees the option - and says, I am to run as an interative login shell, and tries to initialize the terminal, but su has disconnected the child process from the controlling terminal.

In short: The - is either misplaced or erroneous.

For a longer discussion, see practically the the same question on serverfault.

Related Solutions

Bash – Fixing stty: Standard Input: Inappropriate ioctl for Device Error

x11vnc expects its standard input to be a terminal, and it changes the terminal mode to avoid echoing the password as you're typing. When standard input isn't a terminal, the stty calls to turn echo off and back on fail, hence the warning that you see.

Expect is indeed a solution. Try this script (untested):

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn x11vnc -storepasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
expect "password:" {send "swordfish" "\r"}
expect "password:" {send "swordfish" "\r"}
expect "Write*\?" {send "y\r"}

Alternatively, if you can, use an authentication method other than RFB (-passwdfile, or an SSL client certificate).

Bash – echo test | stty -echo -> stty: standard input: Inappropriate ioctl for device

stty -echo changes the settings on the input file descriptor. If you're piping something to the stty command, then the input file descriptor is the pipe, and stty on a pipe is, eh, inappropriate (like the error message says).

It's unclear what you're trying to achieve. If you want to send the text test to your perl script to be read in the my $input = <STDIN>; line, then simply get rid of the stty stuff.

If you also want to read the text as user input (i.e. typed in) and while doing that prevent the text being echoed (e.g. a password) then test whether standard input is a tty (terminal) before doing the stty:

system( qw( stty -echo ) ) if -t 0;

That said, don't shell out for all sorts of things, that's not what perl is for (otherwise you might as well write the whole thing in shell). You can change stty settings from within perl, google is your friend.