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Having my machine text me

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Enablingwolf

Enablingwolf

Senior Member overclocking at t
​
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
I was going to be doing some tasks, that will take a long time to complete. Since I bore quickly watching paint dry. I thought why not have my computer text me when the task is complete. That way I can leave the home and know if any errors occur or when it completes the function.

What would be the best way to get to doing this? I can use mail; for the actual text. How would I setup something to make the machine send the message to me. Not in the sense of a mail server. More like, tapping into the event itself, then have it send it out in something like evolution/thunderbird/mailsend for example.

As an abstract.. I was thinking it could be useful for distributed client machines and knowing when a machine is going bonkers.
 
i have a smtp server which relays all emails to my ISP's smtp server that sits on my home network and i configure ssmtp (which is probably the easiest mail program to configure ever if you ask me) to send emails. ssmtp is a sendmail replacement that just sends mail to myself. since you can send a text via email, that would probably be the best solution if you ask me. i have my server send me daily status reports with all sorts of information via email.
 
mbentley said:
i have a smtp server which relays all emails to my ISP's smtp server that sits on my home network and i configure ssmtp (which is probably the easiest mail program to configure ever if you ask me) to send emails. ssmtp is a sendmail replacement that just sends mail to myself. since you can send a text via email, that would probably be the best solution if you ask me. i have my server send me daily status reports with all sorts of information via email.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you just said but, you made my heart race :D

I think I love you!
 
Using something for mail is the easy part, Linux has so many easy options. How would I tap into the event I want to send? The event is the part that stumps me. Hence a thread instead of sir www.google.com/linux

I am stumped. So a simple explain.. In terms of folding.

Lets say, I got done with a frame or the frame failed. Assuming the machine knows this. I would want the mail sent out to me for that specific event. No matter where I am at, hence the text message. I know what just happened as I asked the machine to notify me.

I know if thee is a log of some kind. It can be done perhaps.

For my use. I am going to be transcoding many large home movie files in a series. I want to know if one of them fails. Two fold here. I can leave the monitor off. Or I can go out and enjoy dinner and a movie. While the machine does the task.
 
Last edited:
GIXXERGUY6 said:
I don't know what you just said but, you made my heart race :D

I think I love you!
Click to expand...

haha :)

i have the smtp service installed on my front end exchange server. you don't need an exchange server to relay mail through your ISPs smtp server. if you have a windows box, you can set up the smtp service to act as a gateway to send mail if i remember correctly. it is a pretty awesome feeling when it works for the first time.
 
Enablingwolf said:
Using something for mail is the easy part, Linux has so many easy options. How would I tap into the event I want to send? The event is the part that stumps me. Hence a thread instead of sir google.com/linux
Click to expand...

i suppose that depends on exactly what you are wanting to monitor or what the event is...
 
lol One of the disavantages of BBS. I edited my post to clarify. I made mention of folding ... Plus my actual event I want to keep an eye on. Which is transcoding flicks from my camera to something else.

I see other options also with this, besides this one use.
 
have the pc text you with 12hr updates of F@H status :D

I don't have an open port on my router so I can't do that :( However 50 ft way I have a D-link Router acting as a hub(2 ports left), and 300 ft away I have a Linksys WRT54GS acting as a wireless access point(3 ports left). Neither place are in a spot where I can put a box and be comfortable with it. lol Looks like I need a new house or another hub :D

I would love to do this, and also build a box for web cache(but don't eve know how to do that :D)
 
SuperMiguel said:
well your cellphone has an email address :) so if you ahve set up an smtp server or some kinda of email server you can have it send an email to your cellphone... the address will depend on your cellphone provider like:
Click to expand...

I know how to contact my cell via mail. I use that all the time sending videos to it and not hooking up a cable.
I like to use for verizon...
[email protected] (more space to send information :D for text: 1000 char limit)

I see no issue setting up a client to handle the mail itself. Heck even LAMP/WAMP using mailsend could handle it. As am example. The mail is not the stump for me. It is the get the event and how to get it to mail.

The hard part is tapping into an event and having my mail send in the first place. Even if it set on a cron, looking every 10 minutes or so. Which I would like to know near realtime when it happens.
 
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well if it is a process that actually stops when done processing, you might be able to use the exit status code for some useful information. as for running processes such as f@h, yeah, you might be able to write a script that greps for specific words in the output (maybe something that constantly uses tail on the log file file) but i am horrible when it comes to writing shell scripts and wouldn't be sure if how to do such a thing thus my uselessness on this topic continues :D
 
I knew it could be done with something like the awesomeness of grep. Just how to make it work easy and across multiple events as I would like.

I am using folding as an example. Imagine if your headless machine(s) let you know if some frames fail. Or the client stops///

I thought this would be an interesting stump.. :thup:
 
Enablingwolf said:
I knew it could be done with something like the awesomeness of grep. Just how to make it work easy and across multiple events as I would like.

I am using folding as an example. Imagine if your headless machine(s) let you know if some frames fail. Or the client stops///

I thought this would be an interesting stump.. :thup:
Click to expand...

I think I know exactly what you are looking for.

Try running something like ./fah6 | grep -i "%" every frame the % should show on the cli, and if it does we can go from there. I'm at work right now or I'd check myself.
 
GIXXERGUY6 said:
have the pc text you with 12hr updates of F@H status :D

I don't have an open port on my router so I can't do that :( However 50 ft way I have a D-link Router acting as a hub(2 ports left), and 300 ft away I have a Linksys WRT54GS acting as a wireless access point(3 ports left). Neither place are in a spot where I can put a box and be comfortable with it. lol Looks like I need a new house or another hub :D

I would love to do this, and also build a box for web cache(but don't eve know how to do that :D)
Click to expand...

You just need a mini-ITX box, or one of those little tiny 4"x4" things. Or just get a $10 wireless PCI card and use the wireless.
 
If I wanted to monitor an event and send a text on that event this is what I would do.

  • Write a script to look for a specific event, then send mail to my phones address.
  • Install: postfix, openssl, cyrus-sasl.
  • Replace: sendmail with postfix.
  • Use openssl to create a self signed cert.
  • Use cert to connect to gmail as a mail relay.
  • Ensure mail is flowing.
  • Have cron run the script at desired intervals.
  • Pray everything works! :)
 
When F@H has an error does it output issues to the cli error? have it replace a file that you have for it, and s script that emails the content when it's updated.
e.g.
$ fah 2>faherror.txt
and the script could simply search for the existence of the file, then send it and delete it. new errors should create new files?
I can't verify this, as I can't get to my linux install right now, so i'd appreciate some feedback.
 
VinnyTAMU said:
If I wanted to monitor an event and send a text on that event this is what I would do.

  • Write a script to look for a specific event, then send mail to my phones address.
  • Install: postfix, openssl, cyrus-sasl.
  • Replace: sendmail with postfix.
  • Use openssl to create a self signed cert.
  • Use cert to connect to gmail as a mail relay.
  • Ensure mail is flowing.
  • Have cron run the script at desired intervals.
  • Pray everything works! :)
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty close to what might work. Since I use my own mail relay. I could probably omit the gmail thing. Being that I use and have a secure connection to it already. I could probably just use the keys I already have in place.

My main focus is to know when something is done encoding and the like. Although being able to change it up for other things. Would be nice to do.

Being an interesting exercise to me. I wanted to get a little off topic and see if the folders, who are generally crafty and active. Could use the idea also. Might be a way to keep an eye on your borgs. Maybe even find another angle.


Getting input on the idea overall, may help me come up with something simple and flexible.
 
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