Tag: open-source

Automatically get the latest Chromium snapshot with launchd

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.

Prevent Mac OS X Leopard from Prompting You to Start Synergyd Every Time You Use SynergyKM

So here’s an annoyance.  Having just installed SynergyKM, a great front-end for the awesome command-line utility Synergy, launching it would result in the following prompt:

The promt you get when launching SynergyKM
The promt you get when launching SynergyKM

To fix this, you need to remove the extended attribute com.apple.quarantine that’s on the file.  Fire up Terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Library/PreferencePanes/SynergyKM.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Synergyd.app
sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Library/PreferencePanes/SynergyKM.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Synergyd.app/Contents/MacOS/Synergyd

That will remove the flags and prevent the prompt.

Normally, you’d only see this prompt once, but since installing it for all users changes permissions such that your user account can’t remove the attribute, it isn’t removed.

Note: This is assuming that you’ve installed it for all users.  If you’ve installed it for one user, it’ll be in ~/Library, not /Library.

Update: I’ve submitted a patch to SynergyKM’s SourceForge page, so if they accept it this will no longer be an issue.