Progress bar while Unix find command is executing

Question

I have a simple Unix shell script which is executing a time-consuming find command. Till it executes, my script appears non-responsive. However it's actually running in reality. How can I add a progress bar or print dots till the find command is executing?

I want to print some dots or hash till the function doSomething is executing.

function doSomething()
{
  # Time-consuming 'for' loop below
  for var in `find XXXXXX`
  do
      # Some more processing
  done;
}

# Call the function doSomething. Need the progress DOTS till doSomething is executing
doSomething

# Remaining script processing

I have tried to google, but none of the solutions fits what I am trying to achieve. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You can run a spinner in the background

#!/usr/bin/env bash

spinner() {
  local s="|/-\\"
  local -i i=0
  while :; do
    printf "%s\\r" "${s:i++%4:1}" >&2
    sleep .05
  done
}

function doSomething()
{
  # time consuming for loop below
  while read -r -d '' var
  do
    : #some more processing
  done < <(find XXXXXX -print0)
}

# Start the spinner in the background
spinner &

# Get the spinner PID
spinner_pid=$!
#call the function doSomething. Need the progress DOTS till doSomething is executing
doSomething

# Terminate the background running spinner
kill $spinner_pid

# remaining script processing