[PLUG] SOLVED Make cron send an e-mail upon completion

[Tomas Kuchta]

Running something started by your desktop is as easy as adding executable
script to your desktop setting startup.

Example of such script could look like this:
#!/usr/bin/bash
while true; do
  sleep 60
  if .... Open dialog
done

Tomas


On Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 20:46 John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Jan 2020 18:57:07 -0500
> Tomas Kuchta <tomas.kuchta.lists at gmail.com> dijo:
>
> >The topic to research would be X11 authorization and MIT cookies.
> >
> >It will require commands to run on both sides of the command line: a)
> >your desktop will need to authorize the connection (every time you
> >start desktop) b) Cron using that authorization to display the window.
>
> Maybe the reason Ben's suggestions so far have not worked is that I
> have not given root permission to access my desktop. If I need to do
> that I would much prefer to automate it, so every time I log in the
> permission is given again.
>
> >The easiest to work around is probably for Cron to write a message to a
> >file and some forever running desktop script checking that file and
> >open the dialog.
>
> I thought of that, and others have suggested it as well, but the
> 'forever running desktop script' might be easier to implement if it can
> be run by another cron job, this time in my user space.
>
> >Another alternative would be to use system messaging infrastructure in
> >Gnome/KDE.
>
> I use Xfce, but I assume that if Gnome and KDE have system messaging
> infrastructure, so does Xfce. In fact, Xfce probably just borrows it
> from Gnome, et al. Except that I have no knowledge of how to use it.
>
> >One could also send a message to all user's consoles by ancient command
> >wall.
>
> I already tried wall. It failed the same as (g)xmessage and everything
> else I tried. Anyway, it's a command line tool only and, while I always
> have a terminal window running, I keep it minimized unless I'm actually
> using it. I need something that I'm sure to see when I sit down at the
> computer in the morning. My original mailto: plan would work because
> the first thing I do after sitting down is to check mail.
>
> There is yet another tool that might bear investigation. It was
> suggested on the Ubuntu forums that I use actiona (apt install actiona).
> Apparently it can be used like cron, and you can write your script
> right in actiona, plus it will make whatever popups you want at the end
> of your script. I've poked at it a little bit, but I haven't yet
> determined if it can run my rsync command as root, but within my user
> space. Unfortunately, while it says that its user interface is
> intuitive, that claim is highly optimistic. And there exists no user
> manual or help file.
>
> I could also run the command as root using my crontab, but that is
> universally frowned upon. The problem is that you need to pump in your
> sudo password from a plain text file somewhere - not a good practice.
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