Feb 13
Jeff KelleyProgramming Tutorials Apple, bash, C, iPhone, ping, scripting
If you try out of the box to compile Apple’s “SimplePing” code sample on the iPhone OS, you’ll wind up with a lot of errors as some files don’t exist in those SDKs. Specifically, you need these files (you need more than just these files to compile, obviously, but these are the ones that aren’t included):
/usr/include/netinet/ip.h/usr/include/netinet/in_systm.h/usr/include/netinet/ip_icmp.h/usr/include/netinet/ip_var.h
So here’s a quick Bash script that links the relevant files to your iPhone OS and iPhone Simulator SDKs:
for path in /Developer/Platforms/iPhone*/Developer/SDKs/*; do
for file in /usr/include/netinet/ip.h \
/usr/include/netinet/in_systm.h \
/usr/include/netinet/ip_icmp.h \
/usr/include/netinet/ip_var.h; do
if [ ! -f "${path}${file}" ]; then
sudo ln "${file}" "${path}${file}"
fi;
done;
done
I’ve spoken to an Apple engineer and confirmed that this is the best way to do it, as well as filed a bug, which I encourage you to do as well if this annoys you.
May 19
Jeff KelleyMiscellania AppleScript, bash, browsers, Chromium, Google, launchd, Mac OS X, open-source, scripting
I’ve been checking out the snapshots of Chromium recently, and they’re coming quicker than you can say “multithreaded web browser.” To facilitate always having the latest version, I wrote a quick LaunchAgent that takes care of it on Mac OS X. First, I have a script named ~/bin/chromiupdate:
#!/bin/bash
# Downloads the latest version of Chromium.
remove_working_dir()
{
rm -rf "${WORKING_DIR}"
exit 0
}
USER_DIR=$(dscl . -read /Users/$(whoami) NFSHomeDirectory | awk '{ print $2 }')
USER_APP_DIR="${USER_DIR}/Applications"
CHROMIUM_DIR="${USER_APP_DIR}/Chromium.app"
LATEST_URL="http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/sub-rel-mac/LATEST"
TMP_DIR="/private/tmp"
WORKING_DIR="${TMP_DIR}/.chromium_launchd"
URL_BEGIN="http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/sub-rel-mac"
if [ ! -d "${CHROMIUM_DIR}" ]; then
mkdir -p "${CHROMIUM_DIR}"
fi
INSTALLED_VERSION="$(defaults read "${CHROMIUM_DIR}/Contents/Info" SVNRevision)"
VERSION=$(curl "${LATEST_URL}")
if [ "${VERSION}" != "${INSTALLED_VERSION}" ]; then
logger Installed Chromium version \(${INSTALLED_VERSION}\) does not equal \
latest version \(${VERSION}\), updating now...
mkdir "${WORKING_DIR}" || exit 1
trap remove_working_dir 1 2 3 6 15
cd "${WORKING_DIR}" || exit 1
curl -O "${URL_BEGIN}/${VERSION}/chrome-mac.zip"
unzip chrome-mac.zip
rsync -HavP --exclude="Contents/MacOS/chrome_debug.log" \
"${WORKING_DIR}/chrome-mac/Chromium.app/" "${CHROMIUM_DIR}/"
if [ "$(ps -aef | grep -i chromium | grep -v grep)" != "" ]; then
open "${USER_DIR}/Library/Scripts/Chromium Update Dialog.app"
fi
logger "Chromium update complete. Version ${VERSION} installed."
remove_working_dir
else
logger Installed Chromium version \(${INSTALLED_VERSION}\) is up-to-date. \
No action needed.
fi
exit 0
Next, I have a property list named ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.slaunchaman.chromium.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd >
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.slaunchaman.chromium</string>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/Users/slauncha/bin/chromiupdate</string>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>3600</integer>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/dev/null</string>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/dev/null</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Finally, I have an AppleScript at ~/Library/Scripts/Chromium Update Dialog.app:
display dialog "Chromium was just updated. You should restart it."
The LaunchAgent runs once an hour, checking to see if the installed version of Chromium is older than the latest snapshot. If so, it downloads it and uses rsync to copy the changes. The script places Chromium in ~/Applications, but it shouldn’t be hard to modify to put it into /Applications.
Jul 18
Jeff KelleyMiscellania gross, scripting
I recently wrote a script to automatically install firmware updates for our Macs. The problem with them is that for some, you have to hold down the power button to finish the installation after the machine has turned itself off. Now I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell don’t want to go around to 900 or so Macs and hold down their power button after installing an update. This script, while it can’t hold down the button for me, does allow student staff to automate the proces up to that point. I don’t have to give them a password they could use to break the system, they can do the update for me, everybody wins. It’s a beautiful system.
Well, today, I was testing the script out. The problem with testing it is that you can only test a given computer once; once the firmware update is installed, it won’t show up as needing to be installed anymore. So, I packed up my stuff and went to our biggest computer lab to do some testing. My test subjects were some “CyberStations,” computers we have with basic web-browsing and e-mail loadsets. They’re relatively unused during the summer, so if I broke any it wouldn’t be a big deal. I went up to one, ran the update, and waited. That’s when smoke came out of the back of the computer as the update ran. Oh shit, I thought, this thing is on fire!
Let’s go back a minute to my description of CyberStations. Their loadset consists of a vanilla Mac OS X Leopard install with some applications taken out, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Adium. Basically, it has the Apple-provided web browser, e-mail client, and IM program, as well as the leading open-source alternative for each. Nothing on these computers is too taxing. As a consequence, the fans never need to run too heavily, as the computer never really gets too hot.
Back to the smoking machine. I was sure it was on fire—where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? Well, the student employee to whom I was demonstrating the script wasn’t too sure. He placed his hand on the back of the computer (an iMac G5, not that it matters) and didn’t feel any heat. So, if it wasn’t smoke, what was it? That’s when I realized what had happened. The fans, never having been run too hard, hadn’t been blowing a whole lot of dust around. When they ran full speed during the firmware update, dust had come flying out of the computer’s vents. A white, puffy cloud composed largely of the dead skin cells that had fallen off of our users’ skin for years. It was coming out of the bottom, out of the back, and even where the screen met the case. I quickly held my breath and stepped back.
I’m really glad that we have student staff to do the rest of this.
May 28
Jeff KelleyMac Tips AppleScript, meta, scripting
After looking at my AppleScript to resize windows, I’ve decided to make a few updates. Instead of manually doing the math for each resolution, I’ve created a new variable, desired_width, which is exactly what it sounds like: how wide you want your windows to be. I’ve also made the other variable names more human-friendly: _nl and _nr are now left_bound and right_bound, respectively, for example. After adding iTunes to my script, I noticed that it was being resized behind the menubar, so instead of setting the upper bound for all windows at 0, I’ve defined the variable top_bound, which defaults to 22 to account for the height of the menu bar. If you find that this setting is incorrect (e.g. if you’ve enabled some accessibility settings that change font sizes and therefore the size of the menu bar) you may need to change it; I haven’t found a way to get the height of the menu bar in AppleScript yet—so far I’ve only found it in Java—so if anyone knows feel free to leave a comment. Finally, after seeing this post by Jamie Matthews, I added some functionality to automatically set bottom_bound to the height of the Dock.
After all of these updates, the script now takes a desired width and moves applications that support AppleScript such that they range horizontally to your desired width, centered on the screen, and stretching from the bottom of the menu bar to the top of the Dock. In the future, I’d like to make a separate application, perhaps AppleScript-based, that will allow for user customization of how the windows are arranged, allow for custom application settings, and perhaps Spaces integration.
May 20
Jeff KelleyMac Tips AppleScript, convenience, Mac OS X, MacBook Pro, screen resolution, scripting
I use my MacBook Pro in a few different scenarios: by itself, plugged in to a 21” Apple Cinema Display, or plugged in to a 24” Dell 2405FPW. I’m also rather OCD; I prefer my Firefox/Safari, Mail.app, and Vienna windows to be centered, stretch from the menu bar to the top of my Dock, and be a certain width. I created a small AppleScript to auto-detect my resolution and size the windows accordingly:
tell application "Finder"
set screen_resolution to bounds of window of desktop
set screen_width to item 3 of screen_resolution
set screen_height to item 4 of screen_resolution
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Dock"
set dock_dimensions to size in list 1
set dock_height to item 2 of dock_dimensions
end tell
set desired_width to 1400
set side_space to screen_width - desired_width
set left_bound to (side_space / 2)
set right_bound to left_bound + desired_width
set bottom_bound to screen_height - dock_height
set top_bound to 22 (* for the menu bar *)
try
tell application "iTunes"
activate
set the bounds of the first window to {left_bound, top_bound, right_bound, bottom_bound}
end tell
end try
try
tell application "Firefox"
activate
set the bounds of the first window to {left_bound, top_bound, right_bound, bottom_bound}
end tell
end try
try
tell application "Mail"
activate
set the bounds of the first window to {left_bound, top_bound, right_bound, bottom_bound}
end tell
end try
try
tell application "Vienna"
activate
set the bounds of the first window to {left_bound, top_bound, right_bound, bottom_bound}
end tell
end try
With that in place, I saved it as an application in ~/Applications, and put it in my Dock. Now, whenever I change resolutions, I just click the button and everything is how I like it.
To change the script, you should be able to add any application with an AppleScript dictionary that supports moving and sizing the window. The numbers I’ve used make the windows 1,400px wide, and the height that you want will depend on the size of your Dock. The script moves windows to the center, desired_width wide, and from the menubar to the Dock.
Note: I have had some trouble recently; sometimes when I change my resolution the AppleScript doesn’t pick it up. To combat this, I told the Displays System Preferences pane to keep its icon in the menu bar; when my script uses the incorrect resolution, I change my screen resolution then change it back, which is enough for the script to detect the change.
Update 2008-05-28: Made some usability changes. Details here.
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