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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Proposal: A general purpose non-gui, non-interactive process
From:       Gary Cramblitt <garycramblitt () comcast ! net>
Date:       2003-08-10 21:53:26
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Sometimes one needs to launch non-gui, non-interactive processes, which
run in the background, while simultaneously providing some sort of
on-screen indication of the process' progress.  For example, suppose you
want to run RedHat's updatedb command, and be notified when it is
completed.  You could run this in a terminal, and use KDialog to pop up
a message when completed, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to do this
without resorting to shell scripting and konsoles?

The sort of thing I'm envisioning would be a lot like Korn.  Korn scans
my mailbox every 15 minutes, displaying a colored icon in the systray
giving the number of messages in the mailbox.  Korn is especially nice
because, 1) it provides on-screen visual feedback in a minimum of screen
real estate, and 2) I can stop it anytime by right-clicking and choosing
Quit.

I propose a new KDE app to support this requirement.  For now, I'll
refer to this new app as KProcMonitor.

I am aware of KStart, KDialog, Ksystraycmd and the like, but each of
these has limitations.  KStart and Ksystraycmd, for example, require the
app to have some sort of window created by a KDE-compliant window
manager.  

KProcMonitor would offer the following features:

  1.  Intended for launching any non-gui, non-interactive command (with
arguments of course).

  2.  Offer minimize to taskbar and minimize to system tray options.

  3.  Offer stop button (or Quit option), which will abort the child
process when clicked.

  4.  Option to end KProcMonitor when child exits, or not.

  5.  Configurable process feedback based on exit status.  For example,
display green icon if child process exits normally, or red when it exits
abnormally. Convert exit status to string and display in icon.

  6.  Ability to chain several commands together, with the ability to
branch the chain based on normal or abnormal exit at each step.

  7.  Run command (or commands) at specified intervals.

  8.  Run child process in a new gpid.  This would permit grandchild
processes to be terminated when the child process is aborted.

  9.  Configurable caption and tooltips.

  10.  Capture output of process (STDOUT and STDERR) to a log file and
offer option to view.

  11.  Ability to pause after each step in a chain to wait for user
OK to continue.

I would like your opinion about this proposal.  Would KProcMonitor be
useful?  Features you'd like to see?  What would you call this new app
(I'm not really happy with "KProcMonitor")? Has it already been done? 
Thanks for your time.

 
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