Pausing script while waiting for Docker container and printing updates

Question

I'm looking to improve it in brevity, readability, and simplicity. Basically, I'm just looking for a more elegant solution. What improvements can I make?

i=0
while true; do
 OUTPUT="$(docker inspect --format='{{json .State.Health.Status}}' su-apache)"
 if [ $OUTPUT = '"healthy"' ]; then
 echo
 break
 fi
 echo -en "\r033円[KWaiting $i seconds for su-apache to finish starting... Current health: $OUTPUT"
 let "i++"
 sleep 1
done
echo 'Environment started successfully.'

Answer 1

If you don't mind using Bash, then it will be more elegant to replace the while loop with a counting for loop:

for ((i = 0; ; i++)); do
 # ...
done

I'm guessing that you're using Bash anyway from the let "i++" syntax, which will not work with simpler shells like Dash.

Note that the various flags of echo are not portable. For a more portable solution, replace it with printf.

Lastly, the indentation is inconsistent: some blocks are indented with 4 spaces, others with 2. It would be better to indent consistently (I like 4 spaces).

• Nathan Arthur: Thanks for this. It really helped a lot! How are things normally done here on CodeReview? How long do people usually wait before accepting an answer? Should I edit my revised code into my question?
• janos: Hi, and welcome! I don't recall a rule for this. A few days on average is usually about right, I guess. We don't edit code in the question, as that would invalidate answers. See this page in the help center for more details, and enjoy the site!