Category Archives: Uncategorized

Autocall: A Script to Watch and “Call” Programs on a Changed Target Source File

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UPDATE July 24, 2010: This post is now totally obsolete. See this post instead.

Recently, I’ve realized that the Autolily script I made was just one solution to a larger class of problems — that of calling a specific program on a target source/text file repeatedly every time you change the source. So, I’ve modified it slightly to make it accept any program name, so that the general format is: autocall [program] [file]. The source code is below:

#!/usr/bin/ruby
#===============================================================================================================#
# Program name: Autocall                                                                                        #
# Author: Shinobu (zuttobenkyou.wordpress.com)                                                                  #
# Date: March 2010                                                                                              #
# LICENSE: PUBLIC DOMAIN                                                                                        #
#                                                                                                               #
# This program takes 2 or 3 arguments; the first 2 is the command and file, while the third optional arg is the #
# delay b/n each possible execution of the command. By default this delay is 1 second (it checks if the file has#
# been modified every second)                                                                                   #
#                                                                                                               #
# Place this script somewhere, like in ~/scripts                                                                #
# Then, open up a terminal and call it like so: ~/scripts/autocall.rb [program] [file]                          #
#                                                                                                               #
# You might want to do a "sudo ln -s" of autocall.rb to one of your system's $PATH directories (e.g., /usr/bin) #
# to avoid typing out the path to autocall.rb every time you use it. Continuing the example from above,         #
# something like "sudo ln -s ~/scripts/autocall.rb /usr/bin/autocall" should do (make sure that                 #
# /usr/bin/autocall does not exist already, as the above comman will overwrite that file if it exists).         #
#                                                                                                               #
# Now you can just do:                                                                                          #
#                                                                                                               #
#     autocall [command] [file]                                                                                 #
#                                                                                                               #
# from anywhere in your system!                                                                                 #
#                                                                                                               #
# To exit, press CTRL-C.                                                                                        #
#===============================================================================================================#

if ARGV.size > 1
    file_data_orig = ""
    call = ARGV.shift
    file = ARGV.shift
    delay = 1
    if ARGV.size > 0
        delay = ARGV.shift.to_i
    end
    pathsize = file.split("/").size
    ls_call = "ls --full-time"

    # make sure that the "file" variable is a filename, and not mixed with its path
    if pathsize > 1
        path_to_file = file.split("/").first(pathsize - 1).join("/")
        file = file.split("/").last
        ls_call << " #{path_to_file}" # modify our `ls` command to reflect relative location of file
    end

    `#{ls_call}`.split("\n").each do |line|
        if line.split(/\s/).last == file
            file_data_orig = line
            break
        end
    end
    file_data_new = ""

    # enter infinite loop -- keep compiling the given file if it has changed in the past 1 second
    while true
        # detect the file size and also timestamp
        lsarr = `#{ls_call}`.split("\n")
        lsarr.shift # get rid of the first line, since that is the size of all the files in the directory

        # find our file from ls's output!
        lsarr.each do |line|
            if line.split(/\s/).last == file
                file_data_new = line
                break
            end
        end

        # if there is any change detected, run given command on it
        if file_data_orig != file_data_new
            puts "\n\e[1;38;5;226mautocall: change detected @ #{Time.now.ctime} in file `#{file}'; invoking `#{call}'...\e[0m\n"
            if pathsize > 1
            `#{call} "#{path_to_file}/#{file}"`
            else
            `#{call} "#{file}"`
            end
            file_data_orig = file_data_new
        end
        sleep delay
    end
else
    puts "Usage: autocall [command] [file]\n"
end

I can think of at least 1 other time you would want to use this script aside from editing LilyPond files — when editing LaTeX files. For me, I use currently use autocall to call a program that converts text files intelligently to HTML files. You could further edit the source to let it pass along command line options to autocall as well, and not just the program name (I will probably do this myself if the situation presents itself in the future).

Xubuntu + Dell Latitude D505 Tips

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A couple quick tips for some nagging problems, and fixes, I encountered on my old Dell Latitude D505 laptop after a fresh Xubuntu 8.04.1 install:

  • You might experience a “pop!” sort of sound (NOT a system beep) every few seconds, or minutes. You might also have discovered that the screen slightly goes dark sometimes after each “poppping” noise. This is most likely due to a shoddy AC Power adapter hooked up to your laptop. It was the case for me — so much for power adapters from eBay. Anyway, the reason why Xubuntu is playing this “pop” sound (which you notice is simply a sound file, since you can kill it if you mute the sound) is because it considers the unplugging of your AC Power cord as an “error”, and plays this sound, which represents a generic system “error.” So to disable the sound, you need to disable the sound: click on Menu -> Settings -> Settings Manager -> Screensaver -> Power Management, and from here, go to the General Tab and uncheck the Use sound to notify in the event of an error checkbox. Tada! And, to disable the screen from flickering each time, go to the On Battery Power tab, and uncheck the Reduce backlight brightness option. Problem fixed! (Or of course, just get a good AC Power adapter.) Credits.
  • The touchpad “tap” or “tapping” feature to click on a button or item is too sensitive for me by Xubuntu’s default settings. Unfortunately, there is no way you can disable this setting, unless you manually edit the usual /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Just follow CJ56‘s instructions as stated here on post #5. In case the forum is down, here is what he said: add the lines Option “MaxTapTime” “0”” and also Option “MaxTapMove” “0” under your “InputDevice for your “SynapticsTouchpad” value. Now, your touchpad’s tapping functionality is gone. Of course, you can comment out those lines or delete them if you want tapping back.