Wanted: Bash program idea, or application suggestion

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I would like to create a small bash program that would
monitor my keystroke activity and if no keystrokes are noted
within a fixed small time, then any currently active
internet connection would be disconnected.

I currently use a Knoppix LiveUSB and wifi via a broadband router
with network connections handled by NetworkManager.

If there's 'an app for this' already, then that might also serve.

Thanks in advance.

Hi utu, I do not have a bash script for you, but I have got some suggestions. First of all, you can disable and enable the network from the commandline by using the commands

Code:

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nmcli networking off

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and

Code:

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nmcli networking on

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I think the task is similar to a screensaver because in both cases user inactivity starts a process. I read about a user who wanted to download torrents while the screensaver is active. His or her solution was to ask dbus whether the screensaver was active. He or she used the Gnomedesktop environment. Later I read the solution has to be modified if KDE is used instead of Gnome. Since xscreensaver does not seem to use dbus I think you should try to find out if power management provides an interface to run one shell script on times of user inactivity and another if the user is active again. The absence of keyboard events should start a bash script, but what about mouse events? How long is a 'small time'? Do you intend to reconnect to the network if there is any keystroke activity again?

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Thanks for your responses, klaus2008.

nmcli is probably part of the solution; I'll study up on that.

I should have indicated keyboard and/or mouse events as an indication or
lack of user presence or attention to internet events.

I think 'a small time' might be some random number between 15 and 30 minutes
as a starting point.

If I know I'm not going to use Knoppix for a while, I manually disconnect.
If I'm interrupted, I might forget to do this; I'd like Linux to disconnect
automatically, if need be. Solution need not consider re-connect, since that's
easy enough to do manually with the NM panel applet.

You can't underestimate my programming prowess. At most I may be able to
figure out a line of bash script. I wouldn't have a prayer with C/C+/or C++
source, even if I had it to look at.

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Two other building blocks seem to be

Code:

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xscreensaver-command -watch

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and the following perl program, which tracks the output of the -watch command
and reacts accordingly:

Code:

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    #!/usr/bin/perl
    my $blanked = 0;
    open (IN, "xscreensaver-command -watch |");
    while (<IN>) {
      if (m/^(BLANK|LOCK)/) {
          if (!$blanked) {
#              **** action to take when screensaver starts ****
              $blanked = 1;
          }
      } elsif (m/^UNBLANK/) {
#              **** action (if any) to take when screensaver is reset ****
              $blanked = 0;
      }
    }

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I don't think perl should be necessary, and there is probably a simpler
bash equivalent that would suffice.