Automatic soft padding running on the TiVo (new version) - Page 4

tym · 05-23-2006, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schwinn

All the pieces are there, just need to be combined to make it work this way. Like I said, if I knew TCL well enough, I am sure it's a trivial task to make this happen (even if it's manual via TivoWeb Module for now).

Having played a bit with endpad, I would suggest it is not a trivial task to do completely, although you may be able to handle a subset of the possible cases fairly easily using parts of the negpad code and the conflicts module.

An example of the more hairy problems you might have to handle: Say you had SPs 1, 2 and 3 (prioritized as such). 1 overlapped slightly with 2, which overlapped with 3. Tivo would schedule 1 and 3, but you probably want 1, 2 cropped, and 3 cropped or descheduled (depending on the size of the overlap). Ug.

Tim

schwinn · 05-24-2006, 09:11 AM

Good point... what would happen if Tivo were scheduled (externally, in this case) to record #2... would #3 then be cancelled because of overlap? If this is the case, then the solution is simple, as you simply recurse through this once more, and find that 1 and 2 are recording (with 2 being start-cropped), and then schedule 3 (with this code) to be start-cropped and added again.

Of course, if this automatic cancellation doesn't happen, then we could likely end up with a crash, I would imagine, as both programs would want to record in that overlap between 2 and 3... and who knows what that would do.

In any case, the code could be made to simply check to ensure that #2 has availabiliy to record, otherwise it could simply error to the TivoWeb screen (since these are TW modules right now, anyway). Of course, to get fancier, the code could also help resolve this, too... but that's a few steps ahead of ourselves.

So, I don't see a problem with this, other than ensuring it doesn't crash the Tivo.

The more complex issue is such: Assume SP1 and SP2, where the show order is actually SP2 - SP1 (with 1 having priority). In that case, SP1 would be recorded, while SP2 would not... here the code would need to crop the start of the already scheduled SP2, and then add SP1. Not really that complicated, but it just brings forth the need for the code to realize the recording order, and then crop appropriately (as opposed to cropping the cancelled one only). I imagine start-cropping of existing recordings is certainly possible (as negative padding does this on the fly)...

In the end, the code doesn't have to be perfectly intelligent... as long as it doesn't cause further issues...

I really wish I knew TCL better... I other languages, but I don't program that often, so it's a slower learning curve for me.

sanderton · 05-24-2006, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schwinn

Good point... what would happen if Tivo were scheduled (externally, in this case) to record #2... would #3 then be cancelled because of overlap? If this is the case, then the solution is simple, as you simply recurse through this once more, and find that 1 and 2 are recording (with 2 being start-cropped), and then schedule 3 (with this code) to be start-cropped and added again.

If 2 was manually scheduled, the both 1 and 3 would be cancelled. If 1 was already recording the partial recording would be lost.

EndPad in effect works by tinkering with the To Do List on the fly. The problem really is that if the unamended recording is blocked as in the examples above it isn't in the To Do List in the first place, so EndPad can do nothing with it.

That's not impossible to work around - you'd have to have Endpad look in the History, identify shows cancelled due to an overlap, ensure that they haven't been rescheduled at some other time, and resurrect them as a new, shortened recording.

Not impossible, but not easy either.

schwinn · 05-24-2006, 07:18 PM

I meant that when 2 was manuall scheduled in, it would be start-cropped to prevent interference with 1. Of course, then it would interfere with 3...

I realize that endpad can't perform these tasks, nor do we want it to, since that's not the intended operation anyway (it's not an end-pad program, it's an "overlap protection" program.

This is why I would start with confres0.2 instead, which deals specifically with conflicts, and instead of sending to another tivo, simply have it start-crop when necessary... it wouldn't need to run repeatedly, except maybe once a week... or via manual TivoWeb intervention, if necessary.

ericd121 · 06-02-2006, 04:59 AM

Having installed this version, I am very impressed and pleased; thanks, guys.

However, I've been missing negative padding due to not remembering this:-

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fozzie

this part of the readme is probably relevant:

-f Q Q=0 or 1. If 1, force negative padding even if no channel change

Unless you started endpad with this option set to 1, you would not have got any negative padding due to there being no channel change between the two recordings in question.

I currently have this in my rc.sysinit.author
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -s 1 -e 4 -auto >> /dev/null &

I know I could change this to
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -s 1 -e 4 -f 1 -auto >> /dev/null &
but I want to check if I can move all my values into endpad.config, thus changing the above to
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -auto >> /dev/null &
and editing endpad.config to
s 1 e 4 f 1
p Jools n 19
p Pops n 2
p Click s 0 e 0
c BBCR4FM s 0 e 2?

That should work, shouldn't it?

(Yes, Fozzie, I will try it, but it's nice to be told the correct usage.

)

Hhmmm... Reading the ReadMe, -s, -e and -f are arguments used to run endpad in rc.sysinit.author; however, -s and -e, but not -f, are keyword abbreviations that can be used in endpad.config.

maxwells_daemon · 06-02-2006, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericd121

Hhmmm... Reading the ReadMe, -s, -e and -f are arguments used to run endpad in rc.sysinit.author; however, -s and -e, but not -f, are keyword abbreviations that can be used in endpad.config.

I think it's just missing from the readme.txt (and comments in endpad.config). f 1 or forceneg 1 should work in endpad.config.

Thanks for the comment. I'll fix the readme in any next version of endpad.

Tim.

ericd121 · 06-02-2006, 05:27 PM

I was wondering why 1 minute's start padding hadn't been added to Big Brother tonight, so I checked endpad.msg, which stated

Friday 18:28:00 : Deleting suggestion {Poseidon European Premiere Special} on ITV2 to make room for 60 seconds startpad of {Big Brother} on C4
Friday 18:28:00 : Added 240 seconds end padding to {Channel 4 News} on C4
Friday 18:28:00 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Big Brother} on C4 .

However, endpad.log states

Friday 19:28:00 : Woken up
Friday 19:28:00 : Recording {Poseidon European Premiere Special} on ITV2 (Suggestion) now
Friday 19:28:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:30
Friday 19:28:00 : Next recording is {Big Brother} on C4 at 19:30
Friday 19:28:00 : Gap to next programme is 0 seconds
Friday 19:28:00 : Can't add end padding to {Poseidon European Premiere Special}
Friday 19:28:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:25
Friday 19:28:00 : Gap to previous recording is 0 seconds
Friday 19:28:00 : Can't add start padding to {Big Brother}
which seems closer to the truth.

More to the point, Poseidon European Premiere Special wasn't deleted, and is in Now Showing.

None of this is a problem; I just thought the programmers might find this intriqueing.

ericd121 · 07-17-2006, 06:22 AM

Endpad stopped on Tivo 2 last night, and here is the error.log

Code:

Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............................
Sunday 18:23:00 : Woken up
Sunday 18:23:00 : No recording in progress
Sunday 18:23:00 : Next recording is {Top of the Pops} on BBC2 at 18:25
Sunday 18:23:00 : No end padding required:
Sunday 18:23:00 : No recording in progress
Sunday 18:23:00 : Next end padding setting due 18:55
Sunday 18:23:00 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Top of the Pops} on BBC2
Sunday 18:23:00 : Next start padding setting due 18:55
Sunday 18:23:00 : Next wake up will be 18:53
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Sunday 18:53:00 : Woken up
Sunday 18:53:00 : Recording {Top of the Pops} on BBC2 now
Sunday 18:53:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:00
Sunday 18:53:00 : Next recording is {Poker Face} on ITV1ANG at 19:00
Sunday 18:53:00 : Current recording ({Top of the Pops} at 18:25 on Sun) matches 'Pops' so use negpad 2
Sunday 18:53:00 : Not time to add end padding yet
Sunday 18:53:00 : Next end padding setting due 18:55
Sunday 18:53:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 18:53:00 : Next start padding setting due 18:58
Sunday 18:53:00 : Next wake up will be 18:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...
Sunday 18:55:00 : Woken up
Sunday 18:55:00 : Recording {Top of the Pops} on BBC2 now
Sunday 18:55:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:00
Sunday 18:55:00 : Next recording is {Poker Face} on ITV1ANG at 19:00
Sunday 18:55:00 : Current recording ({Top of the Pops} at 18:25 on Sun) matches 'Pops' so use negpad 2
Sunday 18:55:00 : Gap to next programme is 0 seconds
Sunday 18:55:00 : Need to add 120 seconds of negative padding to {Poker Face}
Sunday 18:55:01 : Original start time for {Poker Face} is 68400
Sunday 18:55:01 : New start time is 68520
Sunday 18:55:01 : Error detected
Sunday 18:55:01 : no such object: dbobj10736 dbobj10737 dbobj10738
while executing
"dbobj $programsource fsid"
("uplevel" body line 18)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"transaction {uplevel $body}"
(procedure "RetryTransaction" line 4)
invoked from within
"RetryTransaction {
set rec [db $db openid $recfsid]

set programsourcefsid 0
set showing [dbobj $rec get Showing]
set station [dbobj $..."
(procedure "AddNegativeStartPadding" line 65)
invoked from within
"AddNegativeStartPadding $nextrecfsid $negativepaddingtoadd"
Sunday 18:55:01 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 18:55:31 : Woken up
Sunday 18:55:31 : Recording {Top of the Pops} on BBC2 now
Sunday 18:55:31 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:00
Sunday 18:55:31 : Next recording is {Poker Face} on ITV1ANG at 19:00
Sunday 18:55:31 : Current recording ({Top of the Pops} at 18:25 on Sun) matches 'Pops' so use negpad 2
Sunday 18:55:31 : Gap to next programme is 0 seconds
Sunday 18:55:31 : Need to add 120 seconds of negative padding to {Poker Face}
Sunday 18:55:31 : Original start time for {Poker Face} is 68400
Sunday 18:55:31 : New start time is 68520
Sunday 18:55:31 : Error detected
Sunday 18:55:31 : no such object: dbobj10754 dbobj10755 dbobj10756
while executing
"dbobj $programsource fsid"
("uplevel" body line 18)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"transaction {uplevel $body}"
(procedure "RetryTransaction" line 4)
invoked from within
"RetryTransaction {
set rec [db $db openid $recfsid]

set programsourcefsid 0
set showing [dbobj $rec get Showing]
set station [dbobj $..."
(procedure "AddNegativeStartPadding" line 65)
invoked from within
"AddNegativeStartPadding $nextrecfsid $negativepaddingtoadd"
Sunday 18:55:31 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 18:55:31 : Too many errors, stopping

I seem to remember I did have two or three Season Passes for Top of the Pops, which I cleared down to one on Saturday.

I wonder if this may be the cause?

khadland · 07-30-2006, 10:13 AM

Help!

I'm at the folk's house for a Barbie - installed Endpad for them ages ago but it seems that the /var/hack directory got wiped a few weeks ago, so brought my serial cable with me and have tried re-installing the latest version. I've chmodded everything to 755, the rc.sysinit.author is

/var/hack/endpad.tcl -s 1 -e 5 -auto >> /dev/null &

but when i've tried manual recordings they are starting & stopping on time with no padding going on so my 'technical wizz kid' badge is starting to look a bit shabby...

Installing endpad is about as brave as i've ever got with a Tivo - is there an idiot-proof way to check that it's being started up correctly by using the serial cable. Other than endpad this is a bog standard tivo, the only other hack was to get the bash prompt up so no fancy tools or anything else... any help most welcome!

TIA

Keith

maxwells_daemon · 07-30-2006, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khadland

Installing endpad is about as brave as i've ever got with a Tivo - is there an idiot-proof way to check that it's being started up correctly by using the serial cable.

You can look what it's doing by checking out the /var/log/endpad.msg file (just "cat /var/log/endpad.msg") from the bash prompt. If that doesn't give enough details you can see more of what it is thinking by looking at endpad.log in the same directory.

If those files aren't there, or the log file has an error message, then endpad isn't running (if you had the "ps" program, then you could check directly, but that isn't on standard TiVo).

By the way, did you try starting it by hand as well as via rc.sysinit.author (which only runs when the TiVo is rebooted)? That might show an error message if there is a problem.

Tim.

khadland · 07-30-2006, 10:56 AM

Thanks - the logs are all there - looks like I was setting the manual recordings too soon so Endpad wasn't waking up in time to process them.

I'll stick their kit back together and hope it all works out later on!

FWIW I'd thought that rediecting the output to /dev/null would kill the logs, had no idea that it wrote to /var/log so maybe worth a quick note in the readme - which I did read, honest! Yes I had tried running it by hand too, and it seemed to sit there quietly but the setup here means I have to unplug & move the Tivo to be next to the PC so I couldn't correlate events as they happened anyway.

Thanks again for the speedy response!

Keith

Warble · 08-14-2006, 10:32 AM

Okay.
Just got my Tivo networked and I really want to install Endpad.
I have read through the forum and I am slowly getting my head around this.
A few questions if I may - hopefully they will make sense.
Taking Erics' config file as an example

s 1 e 4 f 1
p Jools n 19
p Pops n 2

If there is nothing before or after 'Jools' - what time will it start and finish(i.e 19 minutes into the program or 1 minute before it should normally start and what about the finish )?
If 'Pops' is immediately after 'Jools' will it run 19 minutes over and again when will it finish (is this a scenario for maxneg to stop 'Pops' starting too late)?
Is there a priority in the order of the config file ('Pops' over 'Jools')?
Will this apply to all scheduled recordings i.e season passes, wishlists, Tivo's own suggestions (anything in todo)?
What is a manual recording?

Not sure if I am sounding dumb and I realise that I need to install it and see - but if I miss Corrie... well you know the story.

ericd121 · 08-14-2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warble

Taking Erics' config file as an example

s 1 e 4 f 1
p Jools n 19
p Pops n 2

If there is nothing before or after 'Jools' - what time will it start and finish(i.e 19 minutes into the program or 1 minute before it should normally start and what about the finish )?

The Jools recording will have 1 minute's Start Padding, 4 minutes' endpadding.

Quote:

If 'Pops' is immediately after 'Jools' will it run 19 minutes over and again when will it finish (is this a scenario for maxneg to stop 'Pops' starting too late)?

The Jools recording will be extended 19 minutes into the Pops recording, which will start 19 minutes late. The Pops recording will be extended by 4 minutes as per global padding. I believe you could use maxneg to change the Pops start time.

Quote:

Is there a priority in the order of the config file ('Pops' over 'Jools')?

No, I don't think so.

Quote:

Will this apply to all scheduled recordings i.e season passes, wishlists, Tivo's own suggestions (anything in todo)?

I believe it matches on the ToDo List; global settings affect Suggestions, I suppose matching Suggestions...
<Comes back after checking Now Playing>
Yes. Matching Suggestions are affected.

In my endpad.config I have
c BBCR4FM -s 0 -e 2
Recorded half hour Suggestions on Radio 4 are 32 minutes long.

Warble · 08-15-2006, 04:37 AM

Thanks Eric - getting there.

If I could just ask a couple more (based on your answers)

You say

Quote:

The Jools recording will have 1 minute's Start Padding, 4 minutes' endpadding.

Is that with or without the 19 minutes i.e it starts 18 minutes later and finishes 23 minutes later than scheduled.

and

Quote:

The Jools recording will be extended 19 minutes into the Pops recording, which will start 19 minutes late.

Does the 'Pops' recording then just run 2 minutes over (into the next) if there is a following program.

Sorry if I may be going over old ground.

(Could negative padding be seen more as an offset where Endpad 'slides across' the scheduled recording by 'n' minutes?)

I will hopefully install tonight and try some tests.

ericd121 · 08-15-2006, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warble

Is that with or without the 19 minutes i.e it starts 18 minutes later and finishes 23 minutes later than scheduled.

As discussed earlier in the thread, negpad is poorly named. What it does is extend the finish of the programme into the start of the next programme if there is one; if there isn't one, it has no effect.

So if you had an hour long Jools followed by a half hour Pops,
Jools would have a 1 hour 20 minute duration, with 1 minute's Start Padding, 19 minutes Endpadding, and Pops would have a duration of 15 minutes, starting 19 minutes late and having 4 minutes Endpadding.

Quote:

Does the 'Pops' recording then just run 2 minutes over (into the next) if there is a following program.

Yes, if there is one; if there isn't one, the global setting of 4 minutes applies.

Quote:

(Could negative padding be seen more as an offset where Endpad 'slides across' the scheduled recording by 'n' minutes?)

It could. But remember it has no effect on the start time of the named proramme.

Warble · 08-15-2006, 11:02 AM

Quote:

As discussed earlier in the thread, negpad is poorly named. What it does is extend the finish of the programme into the start of the next programme if there is one; if there isn't one, it has no effect.

It could. But remember it has no effect on the start time of the named proramme.

Killer lines.
Seems clearer now.

Why do you have 'n19' in your config file for 'Jools'?
If there is no following program then it will stop recording after 4 minutes, whereas if there is a recording following that will be truncated by 19 minutes and Jools will be an extra 15 minutes longer (over the standard endpad 4)?

Thanks for all the help so far - very much appreciated.

ericd121 · 08-15-2006, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warble

Why do you have 'n19' in your config file for 'Jools'?
If there is no following program then it will stop recording after 4 minutes, whereas if there is a recording following that will be truncated by 19 minutes and Jools will be an extra 15 minutes longer (over the standard endpad 4)?

You're right (see, you do understand!

).

I wrote that before I understood negpad.

Now I have
p Jools -n 19 -e 19
Having Later with Jools Holland in one recording is more important to me than any following programme.

ericd121 · 08-17-2006, 04:55 PM

I have had a series of failed recordings tonight, due to endpad.
Here is the full uncommented section of endpad.config
s 1 e 4 f 1
# p Jools -n 19 -e 19
# p "Doctor Who" -e 9
p Click -s 0 -e 0
c BBCR4FM -s 0 -e 2
p Countryfile -e 2
p "Daily Show" -s 0 -e 0
c BBC2 -n 1
the last line being the most relevant in this case, negpad on BBC2.

Here is the To Do List before endpad changed it
Thu 17th Aug 19:00 BBC2 Seven Man-Made Wonders
Thu 17th Aug 19:30 BBC2 Mythbusters
Thu 17th Aug 20:00 BBC2 Dragons' Den
Thu 17th Aug 21:00 ITV1ANG Bad Girls

I spotted that Dragons' Den hadn't started to record, went to LiveTV to hit the Record button:
I didn't spot that Bad Girls hadn't started to record, so when I finally did, I checked Recording History to see that the scheduled episodes, on the hour, were conflicting with the previous programme, and the new showing, created by endpad to start at one minute past, was "no longer in program guide".

Here is the relevant section of endpad.log
Thursday 18:55:00 : Woken up
Thursday 18:55:00 : Recording Mythbusters on BBC2 now
Thursday 18:55:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:00
Thursday 18:55:00 : Next recording is {Dragons' Den} on BBC2 at 19:00
Thursday 18:55:00 : Current recording (Mythbusters at 18:31 on Thu) is on BBC2 so use negpad 1
Thursday 18:55:00 : Gap to next programme is 0 seconds
Thursday 18:55:00 : Need to add 60 seconds of negative padding to {Dragons' Den}
Thursday 18:55:00 : Original start time for {Dragons' Den} is 68400
Thursday 18:55:00 : New start time is 68460
Thursday 18:55:01 : Cancelled old recording
Thursday 18:55:01 : Creating Recording...
Thursday 18:55:01 : Creating Showing...
Thursday 18:55:01 : Done.
Thursday 18:55:01 : Gap to next programme is now 60 seconds
Thursday 18:55:01 : Added 60 seconds end padding to Mythbusters on BBC2
Thursday 18:55:01 : Next end padding setting due 19:55
Thursday 18:55:01 : Not time to add start padding yet
Thursday 18:55:01 : Next start padding setting due 18:59
Thursday 18:55:01 : Next wake up will be 18:59
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.....
Thursday 18:59:00 : Woken up
Thursday 18:59:00 : Recording Mythbusters on BBC2 now
Thursday 18:59:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:01
Thursday 18:59:00 : Next recording is {The Daily Show with Jon Stewart} on MORE4 at 19:30

So endpad cancelled the "Next recording is {Dragons' Den} on BBC2 at 19:00" (GMT); supposedly created a recording for 19:01 which for some reason got removed from the To Do list.

Is it too dangerous to set negpad on an entire channel?

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Any help on this gratefully received.

[Edit] I've noticed that this is the same problem that Fozzie had in April.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fozzie

I had a problem last night with back to back recordings on the same channel;...Basically, the second recording ... was cancelled by endpad (to allow the negative padding...) but it was not re-scheduled and so wasn't recorded

sanderton · 08-20-2006, 09:00 AM

Interesting one.

I haven't looked at that bit of code, but it looks likely to me that the fake Showing object created by Endpad is being recognised as such by the TiVos housekeeping as it does not correspond to anything in the Schdule and so removed. You probably get away with it 9 times out of 10 as the houskeeping is unlikely to run in the few minutes between the fake Showing being set up and it starting.

If that is the problem, the solution would be for the new late starting show to be created as fully manual timed recording. It would howver then be divorced from its season pass.

maxwells_daemon · 08-20-2006, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanderton

If that is the problem, the solution would be for the new late starting show to be created as fully manual timed recording. It would howver then be divorced from its season pass.

Would that be so bad? I guess it would briefly appear as a manual recording in the To Do list. I wonder whether there would be any other consequences.

Would another possibility be to keep the original recording, but adjust the schedule so everything is consistent? Or would that be updated if there were a daily call at that moment?

I've never used the negpad feature, so I admit that I'm a bit nervous about making any code changes there.

Tim.

PhilG · 08-31-2006, 03:41 PM

I just refreshed the endpad config file and, sure enough, in the endpad log it says "Thursday 19:19:03 : Reloading config file due to file change". Is it also supposed to echo the new config file settings? If so, it hasn't done that

Also, I just noticed that it has stopped waking up

Arrggh - It died!

This is what I added to the config:

programme apprentic* 15 # pad all Apprentices 15 minutes....

Should I have quoted the program string, like THIS

programme "apprentic*" 15 # pad all Apprentices 15 minutes....

????

In the config, it just says '(may be quoted using {} or "").' - it doesn't say you HAVE to

PhilG · 08-31-2006, 03:47 PM

Doh!

It should have been

programme "apprentic*" endpad 15 # pad all Apprentices 15 minutes....

of course

Sorry (but it's a shame a simple config error killed endpad....... Hint Hint)

PhilG · 09-01-2006, 09:18 AM

Hmmmm

I have the following line in endpad.config

programme "*apprentic*" endpad 15 # pad all Apprentices 15 minutes....

Now endpad crashes with

Thursday 19:48:26 : Woken up
Thursday 19:48:26 : No recording in progress
Thursday 19:48:26 : Next recording is {The Apprentice} on BBC2EM at 22:50
Thursday 19:48:26 : Error detected
Thursday 19:48:26 : couldn't compile regular expression pattern: ?+* follows nothing
while executing
"regexp -nocase -- $newopt(program) $program "
(procedure "getConfig" line 32)
invoked from within
"getConfig "" $cdate $ctime $ctitle "Current recording" {endpad sugeq negpad forceneg}"
(procedure "setConfig" line 4)
invoked from within
"setConfig $ccallsign $ncallsign $cstartdate $nstartdate $cstarttime $nstarttime $ctitle $ntitle"
Thursday 19:48:26 : Attempting to recover
Thursday 19:48:56 : Woken up

Eventually it dies with "Too many errors, stopping"

I asume I have specified the pattern for the programme title incorrectly..... What should I have specified to be able to match "Apprentice", "The Apprentice", "The Apprentice US" etc???

Hmmm

Been reading this thread whilst restarting endpad, and it seems that the program name does not have to be an EXACT match, just ANY match - is that right

So "Apprentice" will match all the above without having to resort to wildcards/patterns??

maxwells_daemon · 09-01-2006, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilG

Hmmmm

I have the following line in endpad.config

programme "*apprentic*" endpad 15 # pad all Apprentices 15 minutes....

Now endpad crashes

...

Been reading this thread whilst restarting endpad, and it seems that the program name does not have to be an EXACT match, just ANY match - is that right

So "Apprentice" will match all the above without having to resort to wildcards/patterns??

That's right. The text you give can be anywhere in the programme name. You can also include regular expressions (which are more powerful, but use a different syntax than the wildcards you tried), but you don't need them for this.

daveh · 11-01-2006, 03:38 PM

Being a complete linux ignoramus, can anybody help me with the problem I am getting trying to make endpad start automatically. I have put
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -config endpad.config -auto >> /dev/null &
into the last line in rc.sysinit.author within /etc/rc.d/
endpad.config is in /var/hack/
After Tivo has booted I see the message (in kernal.log)

couldn't open "endpad.config": no such file or directory

And then various messages indicating that endpad hasn't started.
If I then start endpad manually via telnet within /VAR/HACK/ using ./endpad.tcl -config endpad.config
then endpad starts successfully and picks up the parameters correctly and starts applying the start and end padding I requested. I have checked the parms but just can't see what I am doing wrong.

maxwells_daemon · 11-01-2006, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveh

I have put
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -config endpad.config -auto >> /dev/null &
into the last line in rc.sysinit.author within /etc/rc.d/
endpad.config is in /var/hack/
After Tivo has booted I see the message (in kernal.log)

couldn't open "endpad.config": no such file or directory

Unlike your manual run, the startup scripts probably have a different current directory, so endpad.config won't be found in that directory. You can specify /var/hack/endpad.config explicitly. You could also "cd /var/hack" before the endpad.tcl command, but it is just possible that will screw up anything that runs after.

But you shouldn't need to specify -config endpad.config at all. If you don't specify a -config option, entpad.tcl looks for a config file in the directory where endpad.tcl is located, ie. /var/hack.

daveh · 11-01-2006, 08:25 PM

Great stuff. Removing the -config parameter altogether, as you suggested, does the trick nicely and everything starts up correctly. Thanks.

itm · 11-03-2006, 09:59 AM

I have a pre-newbie question (i.e. I haven't installed Endpad yet): I would like to forcibly add an extra 5 minutes to the end of every programme (i.e. regardless of clashes), except where a scheduled recording immediately follows it on the same channel. Is this possible with Endpad?

jonphil · 11-03-2006, 10:17 AM

Yes that's just how Enpad works. It will add on how much you want as long as nothing is scheduled afterwards.
You can also get it to do the same for the beginning of a program.

aerialplug · 11-03-2006, 11:03 AM

Wow, I've been using Endpad for a very long time now but I had no idea it was so configurable. Should have RTFM I guess! I had no idea it could be configured to work differently on different channels and even pinpoint specific programmes for different treatment!

Good show.