Script that notifies via email when your server has updates

If you are the administrator of a server then you definitely understand the importance of keeping your system updated always.

The following script will send you a mail whenever your server needs an update. The content of the mail will list out all the available updates.

The script

[code lang=”shell”]
#!/bin/bash
# Author: AppleGrew
# Site: www.applegrew.com
# License: GPL v2

yum check-update > /tmp/checkupdate.log
if [[ $? == 100 ]]
then
mail -s "New YUM updates available" -r admin@example.com $MAILTO < /tmp/checkupdate.log
fi
[/code]

Notes:

  • This script has been tested on CentOS 6 but should run on all RedHat based systems.
  • In the above script, change admin@example.com to any valid email id which your server is authorized to send. This the email id for the ‘From’ field. For example you can not set this to (say) someone@gmail.com. Since Google did not authorize your server to send emails on behalf of gmail.com.

Installation notes

  • Copy this script to some directory in your server and give it execute permission.
  • Now schedule a cron job for this script. You can set this job for any user, since this script does not need root privileges.
  • In the cronjob make sure to set the MAILTO environment variable. The script uses this variable to determine the recipient of the notification.

Example cronjob

[code lang=”plain”]
MAILTO=yourmail@email.com
0 0 * * * /home/user1/checkupdate.sh
[/code]

magic_shutdown: Shutdown computer remotely using Magic Packet

The title says it all. If you don’t know what a Magic Packet is then read here. Below is the code of a shell script (I call magic_shutdown) that uses tcpdump to listen for Magic Packets. When it receives on then the shell script verifies its content to make sure that this packet was meant for this computer. Note this script doesn’t require that your network interface card support Wake-on-LAN. It has no special hardware dependencies.

All-in-all, this script lets you create create a shortcut which will act as remote power button for your computer. Press it to turn the computer ON. Press it again to turn the computer OFF.

Get magic_shutdown‘s code
License: GNU Public License version 3.

[code lang=”bash”]#!/bin/bash
#Author:AppleGrew
#License:GPL version 3

listenPort=9
interface="eth0"

#Forking to daemonize…
if [[ "$2" != "forked" ]]
then
echo "Forking $0…"
"$0" "$1" forked &
echo "Forked."
exit 0
fi

#Creating pid file
ppid=$$
echo $ppid >"$1"

echo "Started"
mac=`ifconfig "$interface"|head -n1|sed -e ‘s/.*HWaddr \([0-9:a-fA-F]*\)/\1/g’ -e ‘s/://g’`
pckt_expect=`echo "ff ff ff ff ff ff $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac"|sed ‘s/ //g’|tr ‘A-Z’ ‘a-z’`
while `true`
do
pckt_data=`tcpdump -i "$interface" -x -c 1 udp port ${listenPort}`
if [[ $? != 0 ]]
then
echo "tcpdump returned error."
exit 1
fi

pckt_data=`echo "$pckt_data" | \
grep ‘0x[0-9]*:’| \
tr ‘A-Z’ ‘a-z’| \
sed ‘s/[ \t]//g’| \
sed ‘s/0x[0-9]*:\([0-9a-f]*\)/\1/g’| \
tr -d ‘\n\r’| \
cut -c 57-`
if [[ "$pckt_data" == "$pckt_expect" ]]
then
echo "Matched! Received Magic packet shutting down…"
shutdown -P now #Not recommended
#For Gnome #Doesn’t work dunno why?
#dbus-send –session –dest=org.gnome.PowerManager \
# –type=method_call –print-reply –reply-timeout=2000 \
# /org/gnome/PowerManager org.gnome.PowerManager.Shutdown
#For KDE 3.5
#dcop `dcop|grep power-manager` power-manager shutdown
exit 0
fi
done

echo "EXITED"
exit 0[/code]

Below is the startup script that must be used to launch magic_shutdown script.

Get launch_magic_shutdown‘s code
License: GNU Public License version 3.

[code lang=”bash”]#!/bin/bash
#Author:AppleGrew
#License:GPL version 3

SCRIPT="/opt/magic_shutdown"
PID_FILE="/var/run/magic_shutdown.pid"
case "$1" in
start)
test -f "$PID_FILE" && echo "Already Running…" && exit 1
"$SCRIPT" "$PID_FILE"
echo "Started"
;;
stop)
pid=`cat "$PID_FILE"`

tcpPid=`pgrep -P $pid tcpdump`
kill -9 $pid
kill -2 $tcpPid
if [ -f "$PID_FILE" ] && ! ps -p $pid >/dev/null
then
rm -f "$PID_FILE"
else
echo "Failed to delete pid file. Maybe its already deleted."
fi
echo "Stopped"
;;
esac[/code]

Installations:-
Assuming that you have downloaded the above two codes into your home directory. Now run the following commands.

sudo cp launch_magic_shutdown /etc/init.d
sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/launch_magic_shutdown
cd /etc/rc2.d
sudo ln -s ../init.d/launch_magic_shutdown S99launch_magic_shutdown

sudo cp magic_shutdown /opt/magic_shutdown
sudo chmod a+x /opt/magic_shutdown

Hope this helps. Report in the comments section if you encounter any problem.


Update: Stuart’s Script
Stuart (see comment section) posted his version of magic_shutdown script. If the above one doesn’t work then maybe you should give this one a try.
[code lang=”bash”]#!/bin/sh
#Author: Stuart
#Original Author:AppleGrew
#License:GPL version 3

#Forking to daemonize…
if [[ "$2" != "forked" ]]
then
echo "Forking $0…"
"$0" "$1" forked &amp;
echo "Forked."
exit 0
fi

#Creating pid file
ppid=$$
echo $ppid &gt;"$1"

echo "Started"
interface=`route -n | grep "^0.0.0.0" | awk -F " " ‘{print $8}’`
mac=`ifconfig "$interface"|head -n1|sed -e ‘s/.*HWaddr \([0-9:a-fA-F]*\)/\1/g’ -e ‘s/://g’`
pckt_expect=`echo "$mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac $mac"|sed ‘s/ //g’|tr ‘A-Z’ ‘a-z’`
while `true`
do
pckt_data=`tcpdump -i "$interface" -s 0 -x -c 1 \( \(ether dst "$mac" and not ip and not arp and not rarp\) or \(udp port 9\) \)`
if [[ $? != 0 ]]
then
echo "tcpdump returned error."
exit 1
fi
pckt_data=`echo "$pckt_data" | \
grep ‘0x[0-9]*:’| \
tr ‘A-Z’ ‘a-z’| \
sed ‘s/[ \t]//g’| \
sed ‘s/0x[0-9]*:\([0-9a-f]*\)/\1/g’| \
tr -d ‘\n\r’ | \
awk -F "ffffffffffff" ‘{print $2}’`
if [[ "$pckt_data" == "$pckt_expect" ]]
then
echo "Matched! Received Magic packet shutting down…"
rm -f $1
/sbin/poweroff
exit 0
fi
done

echo "EXITED"
exit 0[/code]

autoWallChange: Automatically changes wallpaper

About the script
This is a KDE (may not work in KDE 4) only shell script which changes wallpaper every few minutes as set by you. KDE too has a built-in feature to change wallpaper but it has few limitations:-

  1. It doesn’t show pictures within the sub-directories of the given path.
  2. It applies the same picture position setting (i.e. Scala&Crop, Tile, etc.) to all the pictures.

This script allows you to apply different picture position settings to pictures from different directories. e.g. if you use the following settings

picDir=”/home/geek/Pictures”
shapeDir=”Rectangle Square Tall”
shapeMode=”8 8 5″

Then pictures from /home/geek/Pictures/Rectangle and /home/geek/Pictures/Square will be shown using Scale & Crop position setting, and pictures from /home/geek/Pictures/Tall will be Titled Maxpect. Following is the table for which number stands for what position setting.

  • 1 -> Centered
  • 2 -> Titled
  • 3 -> Center Titled
  • 4 -> Centered Maxpect
  • 5 -> Titled Maxpect
  • 6 -> Scaled
  • 7 -> Centered Auto Fit
  • 8 -> Scale & Crop

This script is best used with my iflickrDown script (see here).

The code
License: GNU Public License version 3.

[code lang=”bash”]#!/bin/bash
#Coded by AppleGrew
#License: GPL version 3

#############################################
############Alternative way to set###########
##########the following variables############
#Create another shell script and export it #
#from there. #
#===============SAMPLE=======================
# #!/bin/bash
# export picDir="/home/geek/Pictures" #Donot put ‘/’ at the end
# export shapeDir="Square Rectangle Tall"
# export shapeMode="8 8 5"
# export changeWallIntv=2 #in mins
#
# ./autoWallChange >/tmp/autoWall.log & #Launching the main program.
############Configs##########################
picDir="" #Donot put ‘/’ at the end
shapeDir=""
shapeMode=""
changeWallIntv=1 #in mins
#############################################

tmpFile="/tmp/autoWallChange.tmp"
lstFile="/tmp/autoWallChange.lst"
fileLen=0
factor=0

shapeDir=( $shapeDir )
shapeMode=( $shapeMode )

echo "${shapeDir[@]}"
echo "${shapeMode[@]}"

function refreshFileList(){
local DIR_PATH=$1
local sM=$2
echo "Refreshing content of ‘$DIR_PATH’, shape mode is $sM"

if [ -a "$DIR_PATH" ] && [ -d "$DIR_PATH" ] && [ -w "$DIR_PATH" ]
then
for f in `find "$DIR_PATH" -type f -print | sed ‘s/ /|/g’`
do
matchFound=0
for fl in `cat "$tmpFile"`
do
fl=`echo "$fl"|sed -e ‘s/\([^>]*\)>\([^>]*\)/\1\n\2/g’|head -n 1|tail -n 1`
[[ "$fl" == "$f" ]] && matchFound=1 && break
done
[[ $matchFound == 0 ]] && printf "%s>%d\n" $f $sM >>"$tmpFile" && let ‘fileLen++’
done
let ‘factor=(fileLen-1)*100000000/32767’
fi
echo "Refreshed"
}

printf "">"$tmpFile" #Creating new empty file.
i=0
for shape in ${shapeDir[@]}
do
test -a "$picDir/$shape" && find -L "$picDir/$shape" -type f -print > "$lstFile.$i"
test -a "$picDir/$shape" && refreshFileList "$picDir/$shape" ${shapeMode[$i]}
let ‘i++’
done

shownPicsLine=0
lastL=""
totShown=0
RANDOM=$$
while true
do
let ‘l=(factor*RANDOM+100000000)/100000000’
test $totShown -ge $fileLen && lastL="" && totShown=0
while echo "$lastL" | grep -o "\"$l\"" > /dev/null
do
let "l++"
test $l -gt $fileLen && l=1
done
lastL="${lastL}\"$l\""
let "totShown++"

pfileL=`cat "$tmpFile"|head -n $l|tail -n 1`
pfilePath=`echo "$pfileL"|sed -e ‘s/\([^>]*\)>\([^>]*\)/\1\n\2/g’|head -n 1|tail -n 1|sed ‘s/|/ /g’`
pfileMode=`echo "$pfileL"|sed -e ‘s/\([^>]*\)>\([^>]*\)/\1\n\2/g’|head -n 2|tail -n 1`

if [ $totShown -ge $fileLen ]
then
lastL=""
totShown=0
fi

[ -f "$pfilePath" ] && dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setWallpaper "$pfilePath" "$pfileMode"

i=0
for shape in ${shapeDir[@]}
do
if test -a "$picDir/$shape" && ! find -L "$picDir/$shape" -type f -print | diff "$lstFile.$i" ->/dev/null
then
echo "’$picDir/$shape’ content changed"
refreshFileList "$picDir/$shape" ${shapeMode[$i]}
find -L "$picDir/$shape" -type f -print > "$lstFile.$i"
fi
let ‘i++’
done
echo "sleeping"
sleep "${changeWallIntv}m"
done<[/code]