Using dmenu to load extensions

[althalus]

So ondemand is nice, but it still requires interaction with the mouse, and I can type firefox far faster than I can identify it in a list. Since I already mostly use either dmenu or tablaunch for launching apps, I wrote the following simple little wrapper for dmenu that I set up on a hotkey to quickly and easily load extensions with just a couple of keystrokes. (shouldn't need to say that it requires dmenu.tcz loaded)

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
cd `cat /opt/.tce_dir`/optional
tcz=`ls *.tcz | dmenu -p "load extension: "` && exec tce-load -i $tcz

Mayhap anyone else using dmenu will find it useful.

[Misalf]

I'm using a slightly less simple script which makes dmenu show a list of extensions and indicate which ones are already loaded.

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
[ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/dmenu" ] || tce-load -i dmenu.tcz >/dev/null 2>&1
TCZS="$(ls -1 /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional/*.tcz 2>/dev/null | sed 's:^/etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional/::g;s/.tcz$//g' | sort -f)"
INSTALLED="$(for i in `ls -1 /usr/local/tce.installed/` ; do echo "$i" ; done)"
for i in $INSTALLED ; do TCZS="$(echo "${TCZS}" | sed "s/^\b$i\b$/:: $i/")" ; done
tce-load -i $(echo "$TCZS" | dmenu  -b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -c -p "*.tcz" -i -xs -nb '#0D0D0C' -nf '#D4D0C8' -sb '#050503' -sf '#ffb000') >/dev/null 2>&1 &


The only issue I have is that this loop is relatively slow.

Code: [Select]

for i in $INSTALLED ; do TCZS="$(echo "${TCZS}" | sed "s/^\b$i\b$/:: $i/")" ; done

It can take a few seconds to complete depending on how many extensions are available.
Would be great if anyone could think of a faster way.

[curaga]

Code: [Select]

INSTALLED="$[for i in `ls -1 /usr/local/tce.installed/` ; do echo "$i" ; done)"
This loop is unnecessary. The shell will break them the same way either way, so just use INSTALLED="/usr/local/tce.installed/*".

String operations and forks are in general slow. You might be able to replace the echo/sed pair with the shell's string replacement operator, but if that's still too slow, the approach needs rethinking.

[Misalf]

The loop for the INSTALLED variable was a workaround as I couldn't get the subsequent loop to succeed without  sed  complaining about "bad option in substitution expression". Maybe sed doesn't like the path containing a dot.

Still, your suggestion to remove that loop led to some simplification. It now cd into respective directories like the OPs script does.

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
[ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/dmenu" ] || tce-load -i dmenu.tcz >/dev/null 2>&1

cd /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional
TCZS="$(ls -1 *.tcz 2>/dev/null | sed 's/.tcz$//g' | sort -f)"
cd /usr/local/tce.installed
for i in * ; do TCZS="$(echo "${TCZS}" | sed "s/^\b$i\b$/:: $i/")" ; done

tce-load -i $(echo "$TCZS" | dmenu  -b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -c -p "*.tcz" -i -xs -nb '#0D0D0C' -nf '#D4D0C8' -sb '#050503' -sf '#ffb000') >/dev/null 2>&1 &



[Misalf]

You might be able to replace the echo/sed pair with the shell's string replacement operator

In case you meant something like this

Code: [Select]

for i in * ; do TCZS="${TCZS//$i/:: $i}" ; done
it's either incredibly slow so that I loose the patients to wait for it to finish, or I'm doing something wrong.

[curaga]

Yes, I meant that, perhaps it is that slow in bb ash.

You can always write it in C++ and have it done in O(log n) time

[Misalf]

So, not being smart enough to write proper shell scripts means one has to learn C++. q:

BTW, the script currently looks like this, showing an extra dmenu while generating the list of tczs to prevent confusion.

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
[ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/dmenu" ] || tce-load -i dmenu.tcz >/dev/null 2>&1

cd /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional
TCZS="$(ls -1 *.tcz 2>/dev/null | sed 's/.tcz$//g' | sort -f)"
cd /usr/local/tce.installed
echo "Building menu..." | dmenu  -b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -p "*.tcz" -i -xs -nb '#0D0D0C' -nf '#D4D0C8' -sb '#050503' -sf '#ffb000' >/dev/null 2>&1 &
for i in * ; do TCZS="$(echo "${TCZS}" | sed "s/^\b$i\b$/:: $i/")" ; done
killall dmenu

tce-load -i $(echo "$TCZS" | dmenu  -b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -c -p "*.tcz" -i -xs -nb '#0D0D0C' -nf '#D4D0C8' -sb '#050503' -sf '#ffb000') >/dev/null 2>&1 &


Having 517 tczs on 7.x it takes about one second on my netbook. My 6.x install has 1139 tczs.

I just can't find a way to batch-replace several strings without a for loop and echo, which I think is the main for the delay.

[mocore]

I just can't find a way to batch-replace several strings without a for loop and echo, which I think is the main for the delay.

" just can't find"  probably " have not yet found"   

Maby awk can replace tha strings  ? at least i hear its good for those sorts of things !

[Misalf]

Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I'm trying all day using awk which I'm not good at. I try to improve this scripts speed from time to time whenever the delay bugs me too much. I keep reading the same search results on the web about awk though. Maybe because I don't how to search for what I don't understand. Doh.

[coreplayer2]

I sure that both awk and sed are as slow as Molasses   

for speed, I'd use

Code: [Select]

for f in *.tcz; do echo "${f%%.*}"; done
which is faster and better that using ls

[Misalf]

Thanks. Applied with a small adjustment to not mess up filenames containing dots (f.e. Xorg-7.7.tcz).

Code: [Select]

TCZS="$(for f in *.tcz; do echo "${f%%.tcz}" ; done | sort -f)"


[coreplayer2]

Oh well in that case you should take the shortest pattern from the end of $var  (use one % instead of %%)

Code: [Select]

for f in *.tcz; do echo "${f%.*}"; done
:p

[Misalf]

I always forget that syntax. o.O

[Misalf]

Thanks coreplayer2. Your suggestion to use a loop for the tczs got me thinking - Why not reusing that loop.

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
[ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/dmenu" ] || tce-load -i dmenu >/dev/null 2>&1

PROMPT="*.tcz"
OPTS="-b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -nb #0D0D0C -nf #D4D0C8 -sb #050503 -sf #FFB000"

cd /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional
TCZS="$(for f in $PROMPT ; do [ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/${f%.*}" ] && echo ":: ${f%.*}" || echo "${f%.*}" ; done | sort -f)"

TCZ="$(echo "$TCZS" | dmenu -i -xs -c -p "$PROMPT" $OPTS 2>/dev/null)" \
&& tce-load -i "$TCZ"


This makes code execution almost instantaneously!

As it is right now, the only problem is the  sort  part. I can't get it to ignore the leading  ":: " .

[Misalf]

Yay! found a way I'm quite happy with. Thanks everyone!

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
[ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/dmenu" ] || tce-load -i dmenu >/dev/null 2>&1

PROMPT="*.tcz"
OPTS="-i -xs -c -b -w 300 -h 300 -y 19 -nb #0D0D0C -nf #D4D0C8 -sb #050503 -sf #FFB000"

cd /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional
TCZS="$(for f in $PROMPT ; do [ -e "/usr/local/tce.installed/${f%.*}" ] && echo " ${f%.*}" || echo "${f%.*}" ; done | sort -bf | sed 's/ /:: /')"

TCZ="$(echo "$TCZS" | dmenu -p "$PROMPT" $OPTS 2>/dev/null)" \
&& tce-load -i "$TCZ" &



Code: [Select]

time dmenu-tce-load
real 0m 0.04s
user 0m 0.03s
sys 0m 0.02s