Keeps track of what hours of the day the computer is running and logged in on the user.
In the current setup (which is easy to modify), Cronjob runs a script 4 times per hour which increments the count for that hour in a histogram. An accompanying function prints an easily readable version of the saved data to the terminal.
This project was created in an experiment with cronjobs. It also supports another project by finding the most likely hour for a scheduling event to occur. The project which needed this is found at www.github.com/benjiyo/song_list
Requirements are and unix/linux for scheduling script execution with cronjobs. It is tested on Linux Mint 17 and python 2.7.
Run the installation script by navigating to the folder containing the files and enter python installation.py in your terminal. This will replace all occurences of PATH_TO_REPOSITORY with the actual path to the repository on your computer.
Type in the terminal chmod +x bash_script to give the shell permission to run the script. This is neccesary for the cronjob to work.
To schedule a cronjob, type crontab -e in the terminal. Be careful not to type crontab -r, which will remove all crontab settings.
When adding the cronjob, go to the bottom and add */15 * * * * /path_to_repository/bash_script to run the script every 15 minutes. Press ctrl + o to save, accept with enter and ctrl + x to exit. The terminal should output "crontab: installing new crontab" if everything went OK.
A good guide to cronjobs is found at http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-do-i-add-jobs-to-cron-under-linux-or-unix-oses/
After everything is set up, the cronjob will take care of running the script at regular intervals (when the user is logged in).
To show the results, run python /PATH_TO_FOLDER/print_to_terminal.py.
If a user would like to simply type show_usage in the terminal and get the same output, an alias can be made. To create an alias that lasts even after a log out and log in, edit the bashrc file, for example type nano ~/.bashrc. At the bottom, add alias show_usage='python PATH_TO_FOLDER/print_to_terminal.py', with PATH_TO_FOLDER as your actual path to the folder. The alias will not take effect in the current terminal, but open a new one and it will work for that one and all the other terminals you open.
Ways to contribute to the project include (but are not limited to) providing a way of visualizing the histogram, and finding better ways of checking if the user is online or not.