Hackman -- A Hack Manager module for TivoWeb - Page 2

PortlandPaw · 04-22-2004, 05:24 PM

Two good catches, Professor! I'm aware of the double-headed transition page and it has to do with terminating TivoWeb midstroke. I tried putting in and removing html_end commands, but I think the problem has to do with the rug being pulled out from under TivoWeb when it shuts down. I now consider it a transition "feature." If only half were 1.9.4. and the other half TivoWebPlus. Now that would be cool!

Thanks for the catch on the edit_save section. It's funny what plagarism will do to you.

I'm adding the ability to edit other text files, such as crontab, and any other /var-resident startup file, so watch for the next beta, maybe as soon as later tonight.

And thanks for the kind words.

Prof. Yaffle · 04-22-2004, 05:29 PM

Two different versions of Tivoweb would definitely be cool!I like the sound of being able to edit other text files remotely. I can break TiVo from work then

PortlandPaw · 04-22-2004, 08:01 PM

This latest beta version (first post in thread) "borrows" sanderton's startuped.itcl concept and expands it to allow editing of other text files, such as config files for TCS, TivoWeb and hackman itself. Comments will be welcome as I approach the end of the beta stage.

Just don't remotely break your TiVo!

PortlandPaw · 04-23-2004, 04:03 PM

The latest beta version (first post in this thread) is either a terrific service to the TiVo community or its ruination. I've added the ability to safely edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and rc.sysinit.author files. Mounting, remounting, chmod'ing, UNIX format are all taken care of. You'll note I said safely edit the file. I have no control over how people edit it, and therein lies the danger. This may be too simple and too much power in the hands of an inexperienced user.

But I've put big red warnings in the editing module and warnings in the readme files and so, acting under the assumption that we're all responsible adults willing and able to be accountable for our own actions, I offer this tool.

Now, to paraphrase Prof. Yaffle, you have the power to ruin your TiVo from anywhere in the world! Use this power wisely, Grasshopper.

(And, yes, I've tried editing my own rc.sysinit and it worked fine for me)

Fozzie · 04-23-2004, 05:11 PM

Great stuff again PortlandPaw

A couple of really minor things:

An extra " has crept into this line:

0 {set popup [html_link "javascript

Popup1.show(400, 100, 300, 185);" [lindex $appnamelist 0]]"}

Reload TivoWeb says "start/stop" which I always end up editing to say stop/start

13 {set popup [html_link "javascript

Popup7.show(400, 100, 300, 162);" "Reload (start/stop) $tw"]}

Your readme.html uses the old variable names for Tivoweb & Tivowebplus

Favorite should be favourite............. ok, I'm pushing my luck

Thanks again.

PortlandPaw · 04-23-2004, 05:55 PM

Fozzie, thank you for the excellent catches...except for that favourite thing, that is. Maybe I should find an anglo-neutral alternative, such as "preferred" or "popular." I think I've dodged this issue practically everywhere else in hackman.

The Soapbox Kid · 04-23-2004, 09:08 PM

Anglo-neutral?? No such thing ... there is only one correct way to spell favourite and it includes the 'u' (this is what happens when a Canadian wades into this ... lol).

Actually, hackman gets better and better with each beta, esp. the switch to a separate config file. My only comment is that when I went to 1.10, I had to use a newer .cfg file and edit it. It would be great if you could indicate which new betas require updating the .cfg file and which ones won't? Just as a convenience.

Thanks again for the great module!

PortlandPaw · 04-23-2004, 09:22 PM

Will do, Soapbox Kid. I'm working on adding an option to create a secondary startup file (rc.sysinit.author, hacks_callfromrc.sysinit, rc.sysinit.author.edit). I think this with each feature I add, but I think I'm getting close to the end of the development string. That is unless I get any other bright ideas or any of you do.

PortlandPaw · 04-23-2004, 10:26 PM

As promised, the top of this thread has the latest beta which includes the ability to create a secondary startup file (rc.sysinit.author, hacks_callfromrc.sysinit, rc.sysinit.author.edit). The .cfg file contains a few added comments, but is functionally identical to the prior beta version 1.11.

David Platt · 04-23-2004, 10:55 PM

Just installed the latest beta, and this thing simply rocks, PP!! It's come a long way in just the short time you've been working on it.

PortlandPaw · 04-24-2004, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David Platt
Just installed the latest beta, and this thing simply rocks, PP!! It's come a long way in just the short time you've been working on it.

Thank you, David! It's certainly nice to get positive feedback. I appreciate it.
Dave

PortlandPaw · 04-26-2004, 08:32 PM

The comment was made that the bash command line could be made more "user friendly," so I changed it so that it will accept multiple lines of commands, such as:
cd /var/hack/etc
cat crontab
If a command's path is included in one of the startup PATH statements, it will run. However, it still doesn't remember aliases, even if .profile is run as a part of the group of commands. Hmmm.

I changed the password process so it only has to be entered once per visit to the editing screen.

The comment was also made that more applications could be added. What would those be? Any ideas?

I'd like to wrap up the beta phase and move on, so any and all comments and criticisms are welcome.

(Note: No changes were made to the hackman.cfg.file)

David Platt · 04-27-2004, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
The comment was also made that more applications could be added. What would those be? Any ideas?

One I wouldn't mind seeing is a command to run moviesort.tcl. Don't know how much of a demand there would be for that, though, or how many people are even using it.

PortlandPaw · 04-27-2004, 11:09 AM

I've got moviesort.tcl running as a cron job. Would people want to have the ability to run it manually? I guess they might, but I don't see the point.

David Platt · 04-27-2004, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
I've got moviesort.tcl running as a cron job. Would people want to have the ability to run it manually? I guess they might, but I don't see the point.

Maybe it's just cause I've never bothered to set cron up on my machine.

Maybe that will be my project for this weekend. It's something I've been meaning to do for a long time, but it intimidates me for some reason.

PortlandPaw · 04-27-2004, 01:06 PM

For what it's worth, here's my crontab file, edited down to essentials:

# /var/hack/etc/crontab: system-wide crontab
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/var/hack/bin
MFS_DEVICE=/dev/hda10
TIVO_ROOT=""

# Five after three a.m.(EST) or four a.m. (DST), every day, push backup of /etc onto PC
5 8 * * * rsync -PavzH --numeric-ids --delete --exclude=displayfiles --exclude=apsrunning.sh /etc/. 192.168.1.10::tivo/etc/. > /var/hack/log/rsync 2>&1

# Ten after three a.m.(EST) or four a.m. (DST), every day, push backup of /var/hack onto PC
10 8 * * * rsync -PavzH --numeric-ids --delete --exclude=displayfiles --exclude=apsrunning.sh /var/hack/. 192.168.1.10::tivo/var/hack/. > /var/hack/log/rsync 2>&1

# Fifteen after three a.m.(EST) or four a.m. (DST), Maine time, every night, update moviesearch
15 8 * * * /var/hack/bin/moviesort.tcl > /var/hack/log/moviesort 2>&1

# Fifteen after eight a.m., Maine time, every weekday, push dailymail

# EST:
# 15 13 * * 1-5 /tvbin/tivosh /var/hack/dailymail/dailymail_jazz.tcl > /var/hack/log/dailymail_jazz 2>&1

# DST:
15 12 * * 1-5 /tvbin/tivosh /var/hack/dailymail/dailymail_jazz.tcl > /var/hack/log/dailymail_jazz 2>&1

I forgot to mention that you can get cron from here. There are complete directions included and it really isn't all that hard to install. Once its running, it works pretty dependably.

David Platt · 04-27-2004, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PortlandPaw
I forgot to mention that you can get cron from here. There are complete directions included and it really isn't all that hard to install. Once its running, it works pretty dependably.

Thanks for the link. I don't want to get this thread too far off track, so I'll just ask one question about it and if I need any more help I'll start a new thread: do you know if this version works on a Series 2 TiVo?

PortlandPaw · 04-28-2004, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David Platt
Do you know if this version works on a Series 2 TiVo?

No, I'm sorry, I don't know. But I bet it does. Others? This is Vixie Cron V3.0.

PortlandPaw · 04-30-2004, 07:39 AM

The latest version is a housekeeping update with nothing really new. I hope this is a "disaster check" before going out of beta. Please let me know if there are any problems with it.

Fozzie · 04-30-2004, 09:17 AM

What's the difference between hackman.itcl & hackmanG.itcl, which are both in the zip?

stark · 04-30-2004, 09:28 PM

I'd love it if Hackman included <a href="http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153732&highlight=autospace">autos pace</a>.

It's a great little utility, but it has a problem with spontaneously aborting. Being able to easily restart it when that happens would be great.

Fozzie · 05-01-2004, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by stark
[b]I'd love it if Hackman included autospace.

It's a great little utility, but it has a problem with spontaneously aborting.

You must have other problems stark becuase I've been running it for a few months now and it's not stopped on me yet

PortlandPaw · 05-01-2004, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by stark
I'd love it if Hackman included <a href="http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153732&highlight=autospace">autos pace</a>.

It's a great little utility, but it has a problem with spontaneously aborting. Being able to easily restart it when that happens would be great.

I'll work on adding autospace.

As for aborting, I'm with Fozzie, I haven't seen anything remotely related to such a problem in two months of development. Can you provide details?

As for hackmanG.itcl -- oops -- that's my development code for the last "good" version so I can regress if I have to. Shouldn't have been in the package. Please delete and ignore.

PortlandPaw · 05-01-2004, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by stark
I'd love it if Hackman included autospace .

Could you please tell me where the lastest and best version of autospace can be downloaded? I don't want to work with an outdated version.

Thanks!

Fozzie · 05-01-2004, 11:29 AM

I'm running Version 1.1 (from the second post in this thread):

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...0&pagenumber=1

arthur · 05-01-2004, 01:45 PM

Excellent tool PortlandPaw
Can I customize how Hackman launches some of the apps where one doesn't specify the app path + arguments.

For example:
I only have control to specify the path to tserver

Code:

set tytoolpath "/var/hack/tserver"

and then when hackman launches the app, it would launch with the following command (which I have no control over)

Code:

/var/hack/tserver/tserver_mfs7 -s /var/hack/tserver/NowShowing.tcl

I would like to launch it as such

Code:

/var/hack/tserver/tserver_mfs7 -s tivosh /var/hack/tserver/NowShowing.tcl

otherwise it wouldn't work for me.

PortlandPaw · 05-01-2004, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by arthur
Excellent tool PortlandPaw
Can I customize how Hackman launches some of the apps where one doesn't specify the app path + arguments.

Thank you, arthur. The latest beta version (first post in thread) does the following:
-- Adds autospace as an option (will display only if autospace is installed)
-- Simplifies the process for adding new apps, directions included (inspired by autospace!)
-- Moved startup paths to hackman.cfg per arthur's concern. Now easily editable.
As a result of these changes, updaters should copy both hackman.itcl and hackman.cfg.

As always, please inform me of any problems with hackman and I'm open to suggestions for improvement and/or new apps to include.

arthur · 05-01-2004, 02:27 PM

Awesome,
what a support,
I just posted the request, and now I have a fully functional version.

Thank you thank you thank you.

PortlandPaw · 05-01-2004, 02:51 PM

I thought 45 minutes was a reasonable response time. Sorry it took so long! (just kidding) Thanks for the good words!

stark · 05-02-2004, 10:20 PM

Thanks Portland Paw! The turn-around of your response was incredible.

As to autospace (I'll repost this in the autospace thread when I'm done):

I've got two theories about what is the problem is. One is that the Tivo is spontaneously rebooting. I'll be checking my dailymail to see if that is happening.

The other is that autospace is aborting based on some internal error. The problem is that the autospace log only exists while autospace is running. Autospace ends, the log is deleted. I've got a telnet session open doing a tail of the log. If this is the problem, I hope to see an error in the telnet session even if the log is gone.