For some reason, this bash script never gets to echo "after cat", but does get past echo "before cat".

rm pipe
mkfifo pipe

echo "before server"

cd backend
node bin/www > pipe &
cd ..


echo "before cat"

server_output=$(cat pipe) # seems to get hung up here

echo "after cat"

echo "$server_output"

# [bash to check the server output here and print it conditionally]

I understand that pipes need to have both ends open in order to not block, but I thought I’ve done this by including the ‘&’ symbol in node bin/www > pipe &.

I’ve tried using head (with --lines=1 and without) instead of cat to no avail.