Basic shell_command not working

Configuration
1

I’m trying to run a shell command, and can’t even get a basic test to work:

I’ve added this to my configuration.yaml:

#shell command tester
shell_command:
  test: /usr/bin/touch /tmp/hass-shell-command-test

I tested the configuration and it passes, so I restart home-assistant and nothing happened.

I verified that running:

/usr/bin/touch /tmp/hass-shell-command-test

works as expected

2

Did you press the button to initiate the shell_command?

3

I don’t see any button in the web interface

4

IIRC it should show up in scripts. If not, you need to make a script that calls it. Then press that.

5

shell commands don’t show up anywhere after they are created.

the only thing they do is expose a service to call the command.

you have to create an automation, switch, script etc to call the service that calls the command. or call it from the services page.

6

Got it. So what could I add to my scripts.yaml to make it show up?

I tried:

#test a simple shell script
  shelltest:
    alias: "shell test"
      service: shell_command.test

and

#test a simple shell command
  shelltest:
    alias: "shell test"
      - service: shell_command.test

but neither work

7

Got it, this works. Thanks for the help!

configuration.yaml:

#shell command tester
shell_command:
  test: /usr/bin/touch /tmp/hass-shell-command-test

scripts.yaml:

#test a simple shell script
  shelltest:
    sequence:
    - service: shell_command.test
8

I’m not sure if you can reference a shell command in a separate directory than your config directory. Try moving the actual command to your shell_command file and run it again.

And how are you running it? Those script or automations won’t run without something to trigger them.

9

this doesn’t work:

shell_command:
  test: /usr/bin/date >> /tmp/hass-shell-command-test.txt

it will create the file, but not write to it

this works:

#shell command tester
shell_command:
  test: touch /tmp/hass-shell-command-test3

So seems that as long as the command is in your path it will find it. I also noticed that reloading scripts and reloading core wasn’t enough, I had to restart the server for any changes made to configuration.yaml

As for running it, I’m just clicking the activate button in the web guide

10

and launching a bash script works as well:

shell_command:
  test2: /Users/[username][/.homeassistant/scripts/test.sh

EDIT: Just in case this helps someone else.

If you use shell_command to launch a bash script, you may need to use absolute paths to your commands. For example:

#!/bin/bash

date >> /tmp/test.txt

the above command fails with a “return code: 127” error in the home-assistant.log which means command not found. It will create the file, but not write anything to it.

But this works:

#!/bin/bash

/usr/bin/date >> /tmp/test.txt
11

Hi

I am trying to implement a solution to restart automatically appdaemon service (HA Dashboard) in case it crashes (That has happened several times since I implemented the solution). I have found the way to read the status of appdaemon service with a command line:

Configuration.yaml
- platform: command_line
command: status=/bin/systemctl status [email protected] | grep 'active' | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' >> /tmp/check.txt

- platform: file
  file_path: /tmp/check.txt
  name: Appdaemon Check

I read the status of appdaemon service in the file check.txt (last line).
So far everything is ok.

Now, with an automation, I want to execute a shell_command to restart appdaemon service as soon as the sensor.appdaemon_check becomes “inactive”.

So far all ok. My problem is with the shell_command. I have tried thousands of possibilities and it either returns 127, 1 or 2.

My current shell_command is:
shell_command:
restart_appdaemon_service: systemctl restart [email protected]

and it returns code 1.

I have tried /bin/systemctl, same result.

Any clue? I have been spending more than 3 hours on such a tiny issue. Frustration is growing.

Thanks for any help

12

I found this solution, as I am certain that you have an authorization problem:


Scripts in my configuration are run under ‘homeassistant’, and that user is not allowed to execute ‘systemctl restart’…
13

Thank you peterber!
I’ll have a look at it

14

Just in case, maybe someone will help.
If, as a result, an error occurs during the execution of the external shell_command, then as an option this arises due to a lack of rights to run.
An error like this or so:

Error running command: /usr/bin/mpg123 ..., return code: 1

chmod u+s /usr/bin/mpg123 - solves the problem.

Or if the command is related to playing sound, you need to add the user to the group “audio”
usermod -a -G audio [user name]

15

I am Trying to reboot a Raspberry PI via Script.

This is the shell command, in my configuration.yaml file

shell_command:
  reboot_pi: "ssh -i /root/config/ssh_keys/id_rsa_raspberry [email protected] 'sudo reboot'"

That works fine if I paste it in a terminal.

I created this script, but when I run the script, no reboot.

alias: Reboot Raspberry Pi
sequence:
  - action: shell_command.reboot_pi
    data: {}
mode: single
description: ""

Whats the best way to figure out why this does not work as expected?

16

This is the Fix