Using "watch" to run a function repeatedly in Bash?

This is my first Bash script. I have a WiFi issue with my Debian machine. I'm not here to ask about the cause, but rather how to put a band-aid on the issue with Bash. My WiFi will drop out at a random time, usually every 12-15 minutes. I use SSH on this server, and do not want to have to run ifdown wlan0 and ifup wlan0 (which reconnects the WiFi) manually from the physical server.

The function of this Bash script is to attempt to connect three times. If it fails three times, it will give up. Otherwise, every three seconds it will check whether or not my server is connected by attempting to ping Google.

#!/bin/bash

ATTEMPTS=1

function test_connection {
  ping -c 1 www.google.com
  local EXIT_CODE=$?
  if [ $EXIT_CODE -eq 0 ]
    then
      return true
    else
      return false
  fi
}
function reset_connection {
  ifdown wlan0
  ifup wlan0
  EXIT_CODE=$((EXIT_CODE+1))
}
function connection_test_loop {
  if [ $ATTEMPTS -ge  3 ]
    then
      echo CONNECTION FAILED TO INITIALIZE ... ATTEMPT $ATTEMPTS FAILED ... EXITING
      exit
  fi
  if ! [ test_connection ]
    then
      echo CONNECTION DROPPED ... ATTEMPTING TO RE-ESTABLISH CONNECTION ... ATTEMPT $ATTEMPTS
      reset_connection
  fi
}

test_connection
if [ $? ]
  then
    echo CONNECTION PRE-ESTABLISHED
    watch -n 3 connection_test_loop
  else
    echo CONNECTION FAILED TO INITIALIZE ... ATTEMPTING TO RESET CONNECTION ... ATTEMPT $ATTEMPTS
    reset_connection
    if [ $? ]
      then
        echo CONNECTION ESTABLISHED
        watch -n 3 connection_test_loop
      else
        echo CONNECTION FAILED TO INITIALIZE ... ATTEMPT $ATTEMPTS FAILED ... EXITING
        exit
    fi
fi

I've isolated the issue I'm having with this script. It lies in calling the connection_test_loop function with watch. I've been unable to find any information as to why this isn't performing as expected and running the function every three seconds.

Solution

tldr

00 use watch -x bash to watch bash

01 pass your function as a command of :bash ie bash -c yourcommand

watch -x bash -c  yourcommand

watch -x bash -c 'yourcommand arg0 arg1 ...'

in detail

It's possible that watch is not aware of your connection_test_loop function. You can try adding an export below the test_connection to perhaps solve the issue:

test_connection
export -f connection_test_loop
...

↳ http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_man_pages/exporth.html

When calling watch, you may need this syntax:

watch -x bash -c connection_test_loop

And if your function has some arguments, make sure you surround the function call and these parameters with quotes, e.g.:

watch -x bash -c "connection_test_loop my_arg1 my_arg2"