flashbakectl

flashbakectl is a simple front end that loads and unloads plist daemons for OS X's launchd, allowing you to control when Flashbake is automatically run.

Installation

Although OS X is built on Unix principles and has a working version of cron, Apple suggests using launchd to control scheduled events. launchd loads plist files to run system and user agents and daemons, giving you finer control over when scripts are run.

1. Install Flashbake. Configure it to work with a repository. See the documentation for Flashbake for details.

2. Install flashbakectl. Place the entire flashbakectl folder in a directory somewhere in your path. To see or modify your path, edit ~.bash_profile. On my computer I use store my executable scripts in ~/bin, which is included in my path (...some/directory:/Users/andrew/bin:$PATH).

3. Make flashbakectl executable. Type chmod +x flashbakectl.

4. Install Lingon. A plist file is simply an XML file, as you can see from sample.plist, but I suggest using a graphical plist editor, like the open source Lingon (which has sadly been abandoned by the author), to manage your custom plists.

5. Configure flashbakectl. Create a new .cfg file based on sample.cfg, updating the variables TITLE, FLASHBAKE, PLIST, PROJECT, and optionally REPO to match your environment.

6. Create your plist file. Create a new "My Agent" in Lingon. Name it something like com.yourname.flashbakectl. Type the full path to flashbakectl, load your configuration file with -c PROJECTNAME, and add the -a flag to actually run the script.
   Example: /Users/andrew/bin/flashbakectl/flashbakectl -c sample -a
   Modify the scheduling options (you'll probably only want it to run every 15-20 minutes, not). See the included screenshot for a full example.

7. Test everything. Run flashbakectl -c PROJECTNAME -m to manually run Flashbake with all your configuration. If that works, run flashbakectl -c PROJECTNAME -l to load the plist.

Regular use

Run flashbakectl -c PROJECTNAME -l before you begin writing to load the plist. Every 15 minutes (or whatever interval you set), launchd will automatically run flashbakectl -c PROJECTNAME -a, which runs Flashbake. When you are done writing for the day (or writing session or whatever), run flashbakectl -c PROJECTNAME -u to unload the list and essentially turn off the scheduled committing.

Multiple projects

You can use flashbakectl for any number of projects. For each new project you'll need to (1) create a new .cfg file, and (2) create a separate plist file. Always pass the project name parameter without the file extension.

Example: With a new project .cfg file named other_project.cfg and a new plist file specified in the cfg, run flashbakectl -c other_project -l to load the corresponding plist.

License

flashbakectl is licensed under the MIT License:

Copyright (c) 2009 Andrew Heiss (http://www.andrewheiss.com)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.