Time Traveler... a sort of Time machine system

This is not a nice script, but it does the job for me in the way I need it to work. I share it with you in the case it can be useful to you.
I did it to store Time Traveler data on a separate disk, it is why I don't use a maximum backuped data size, and instead a free space to keep before starting the backup.
All backups are stored in folders starting with the time_t value, then the date in human readable format.
It is used in a server, so it sends the result to an email address. You can use it with cron for example.

The script is in python, so just copy it in the file timetraveler.py, change source and destination folder and email address at the top of the file, then chmod 700 timetraveler.py, then run it. Be sure you have python and rsync installed. Us only a linux compatible file system as backup folder (ext2, ext3, ext4 or other... not fat32 or ntfs, since I don't know if it will work)

Here is the script.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# coding: utf-8
#  TimeTraveler (c) 2009 Walter  http://computersstoneage.blogspot.com/
#
#
#TODO:
#     Répér dans les logs la sortie des commandes:
#            rm
#            rsync
#
import commands
import datetime
import time
import array
import string
import os


freeSpaceLimit = 50*1024*1024; #required disk space to start the backup in Ko. here it is 50Go.
path = "/mnt/timemachine/"  #folder where to store backups
source = "/mnt/data/"  #rértoire à auvegarder
mail = "/usr/bin/mail" #mail software
email = "timemachine"    #mail address to send the result of the backup


def disk_get_free(path):
    res = commands.getoutput('df -k '+path).splitlines()
    return int(res[1].split()[3])
  
def get_size(val):
    if val < (1024):
        val = str(val)+ ' KB'           
    elif  val < 1048576: #(1024*1024):
        val = str(float(int(val/102.4))/10.0)+ ' MB'       
    elif val < 1073741824 :#(1024*1024*1024):
        val = str(float(int(val/(104857.6)))/10.0)+ ' GB'   
    else:
        val = str(float(int(val/(107374182.4)))/10.0)+ ' TB'
    return val




date = str(datetime.datetime.now())
date = date.split()[0]
total = int(time.time())
#print(str(total)+"_"+date)

dest = path+str(total)+"_"+date

log = "STARTING TIMEMACHINE: "+str(datetime.datetime.now())+"\n"
log=log+"Backup folder: "+path+"\n"
log=log+"Source folder: "+source+"\n"
#lastInt = 0
#lastName = date+"_"+str(total)




#methode 1: je purge en fonction de l'espace disque
#print disk_get_free(path)
freeSpace = disk_get_free(path)
log = log+"Starting disk space recovery:\n"
log = log+"\tActual disk size: "+get_size(freeSpace)+"\n"
log=log+"\tDisk space to keep: "+get_size(freeSpaceLimit)+"\n"
if(freeSpace >= freeSpaceLimit):
    log=log+"\tNo need to free disk space.\n"
empty = False #cela me permet de savoir si j'ai encore des fichiers àffacer
while freeSpace < freeSpaceLimit and empty==False:
    files = os.listdir(path)
    files.sort()
    empty = True
    if len(files)>0:
         tab = files[0].split('_')
         if(len(tab) > 1) and str(tab[0]).isdigit():
            command = "rm -rf "+path+files[0]
            #print(command)
            log = log+commands.getoutput( command )
            freeSpaceNew = disk_get_free(path)
            log=log+"\tRemoving "+files[0]+": "+command+" recovered "+get_size(freeSpaceNew - freeSpace)+" => "+get_size(freeSpaceNew)+" free.\n"
            freeSpace = freeSpaceNew
            empty = False
   
if(empty==True):
    log=log+"ERROR: Can't recover enough space from previous backup. Current free space: "+get_size(freeSpace)+".\nABORTING BACKUP.\n"
    #print(log)
    p = os.popen(mail+" -s  \"Time machine "+str(datetime.datetime.now())+" - ERROR\" "+email, 'w')
    p.write(log)
    exitcode = p.close()
    exit()
log=log+"Disk space recovery finished.\n"

files = os.listdir(path)
files.sort()
found = False
i=0;
lastBackup = ""
size = len(files)
while found==False and i
    #print("i:"+str(i)+" size:"+str(size))
    tab = files[size-i-1].split('_')
    if(len(tab) > 1) and str(tab[0]).isdigit():
        found = True
        lastBackup = files[size-i-1]
    i = i+1
   
   
#lastBackup = "path"+files[len(files)-1]
#La, j'ai plus qu'a faire mon backup
command = ""
if lastBackup != "":
    log=log+"Found previous backup to increment: "+ lastBackup +"\n";
    command = "/usr/bin/rsync -a --safe-links  --stats --link-dest="+path+lastBackup+" "+source+" "+dest
    log=log+"Starting incremental backup:\n"+command+"\n"
else:
    log=log+"No previous backup to increment found.\n";
    command = "/usr/bin/rsync -a --safe-links --stats "+source+" "+dest
    log=log+"Starting complete backup:\n"+command+"\n"

log = log+commands.getoutput( command )
log=log+"\nBACKUP FINISHED!"
#print("Commad: "+command)



log = log+"Time machine finished: "+str(datetime.datetime.now())+"\n"
p = os.popen(mail+" -s  \"Time machine "+str(datetime.datetime.now())+" - OK\" "+email, 'w')
p.write(log)
exitcode = p.close()

 That's it

Frets on Fire and FoFix Song Cover Art and/or Album Cover Art Downloader

Maybe you are a fan of Frest On Fire or FoFix (personnaly, I prefer Fofix, since it has much more capabilities and less bugs).
Maybe you have some songs to play, and you would like to have cover art for your song list. To help you retrieving them automatically, I created this short script.
It is a very dirty script, and is not able to get all cover art. However It seems to make the job pretty well
For linux users, this script is usefull to, since it changes filenames starting with a upper case to lower case in songs folders.

WARNING: BE VERY CAREFUL. THIS SCRIPT IS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO. THIS SCRIPT CONNECT TO AMAZON TO FIND THE COVER ART. YOU HAVE TO CHECK WITH AMAZON FIRST TO KNOW IF YOU CAN USE IT AS IS. I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY THING THIS SCRIPT CAN DO. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK AND AT YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY. CHECK IT DOESN'T DO THINGS WHICH MAY BE FORBIDDEN BEFORE USING IT.

Maybe you can modify this script to use another search engine.
This script needs ImageMagick program called "convert" to work.
It is a python script. To use it, create a file called coverart.py in your "songs" folder, then copy/paste the script below, and save the file. Then, using a terminal, go in your song folder and execute: python coverart.py
The script will check for songs in sub-folders recursively and download album cover art for each song.

Here is the bad and dirty script:


#!/usr/bin/env python
# coding: utf-8

##########################################################
#                                                        #
# Copyright Walter http://computersstoneage.blogspot.com #
#                                                        #
# This program is free software; you can redistribute    #
# it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General #
# Public License as published by the Free Software       #
# Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at    #
# your option) any later version.                        #
##########################################################

import urllib
import shutil
import re, os
import commands

def download(url):
    webFile = urllib.urlopen(url)
    a = webFile.read()
    start = a.find('._SL')

    a = a[start-70:start]
    start = a.find('http://')
    img =  a[start:]+"._SL500_AA240_.jpg"
    #print img
    return img

def getinfo(path, cover):
    artist = ""
    song = ""
    try:   
        f = open(path+"song.ini", "r")
        tmp = f.readlines(2000)
        f.close()
        for line in tmp:
            if (line.strip().startswith('name') or line.strip().startswith('Name')):               
                song = line.strip().split("=")[1].strip()
                a = song.find('(')
                if a > 0:
                    song = song[:a]
            if (line.strip().startswith('artist') or line.strip().startswith('Artist')):
                artist = line.strip().split("=")[1].strip()
                a = artist.find('(')
                if a > 0:
                    artist = artist[:a]
        song = song.replace(' ','+');
        artist = artist.replace(' ','+');
       
        return 'http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=%22'+artist+'%22+%22'+song+'%22&x=0&y=0'
    except:
        print "Failed to open "+path+"song.ini"
        #return ""
        exit
       
   
def AddCoverArt(path):
    url = getinfo(path,True)
    if len(url) < 10:
        return
    img = download(url)
    if ((len(img) < 20) or (len(img)>1000)):
        print("Nothing found with cover for: "+path+" "+url);
        return
    img=urllib.unquote_plus(img)
    print("Loading: "+img)
    try:
        webFile = urllib.urlopen(img)
        localFile = open(path+"album.tmp.png", 'w')
        localFile.write(webFile.read())
        localFile.close()
    except:
        print "Can't get: "+img
        return ""


def ScanDir(g):
        files = os.listdir(g)
        for f in files:
                if(os.path.isdir(g+f)):
                        print('Entering: '+g+f+'/')
                        ScanDir(g+f+'/')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'Song.ogg')):
                print( 'mv '+g+'Song.ogg '+g+'song.ogg')
                os.rename(g+'Song.ogg', g+'song.ogg')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'Song.ini')):
                print( 'mv '+g+'Song.ini '+g+'song.ini')
                os.rename(g+'Song.ini', g+'song.ini')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'Notes.mid')):
                print( 'mv '+g+'Notes.mid '+g+'notes.mid')
                os.rename(g+'Notes.mid', g+'notes.mid')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'Rhythm.ogg')):
                print( 'mv '+g+'Rhythm.ogg '+g+'rhythm.ogg')
                os.rename(g+'Rhythm.ogg', g+'rhythm.ogg')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'Guitar.ogg')):
                print( 'mv '+g+'Guitar.ogg '+g+'guitar.ogg')
                os.rename(g+'Guitar.ogg', g+'guitar.ogg')
        if(os.path.exists(g+'guitar.ogg')) and (not os.path.exists(g+'song.ogg')):
                shutil.copy2(g+'guitar.ogg', g+'song.ogg')
                print( 'cp '+g+'guitar.ogg '+g+'song.ogg')
    if(os.path.exists(g+'Album.png')):
        os.rename(g+'Album.png', g+'album.png')
                print( 'mv '+g+'Album.png '+g+'album.png')
    if(os.path.exists(g+'song.ini'))and (not os.path.exists(g+'album.png')):
        AddCoverArt(g)
    if(os.path.exists(g+'album.tmp.png')):
        #os.rename(g+'album.png', g+'album.tmp.png')
        cmd = 'convert "'+g+'album.tmp.png" "'+g+'album.png"'
        print('Convertion: '+cmd)
        commands.getstatusoutput(cmd)
        os.unlink(g+'album.tmp.png')
       
ScanDir('./')



That's it...

Fix a Happauge Wintv-PVR-150 which do not initialise correctely on linux

Maybe you have a Wintv-PVR-150 card on your Linux box, and you regularly encounter some "initialization" problems, even if the card is correctly recognized by linux.
Symptoms may be:

• no mpeg2 output (empty video file in mythtv)
  
• only snow (channel can't be selected?)
• black picture
• picture stretched or distorted
• black and white image

To fix this problem there are two things you can do:

1. Move your card on another PCI slot and see if things improve
2. Change your motherboard

For sure changing the motherboard is not something we want to do, but sometime,  you have no choice.

I had this problem, and if changing the PCI slot reduced the ratio of bad initialization, it didn't fixed it completely. After my system died, I changed the motherboard and CPU, and now everything works perfectely.

How Windows 7 is better than Linux

Ok, this is some training documents from Microsoft for resellers, and this is so good... Microsoft FUD at its best.

Ubuntu Wine

That's it!

How to prevent auto-replies to be sent when spams are received

This is a simple solution to not send auto-reply messages when you receive a spam, using spam assaassin, postif and webmin auto-reply system.

Here, I consider that you use webmin to manage your server and auto-replies , that your mail server software is postfix and spamassassin is configured and works. Since the default way spamassassin works is to add some text to the subject of your emails if it is detected as a spam, I consider that the text which is added is "[SPAM]".

To prevent the autoreply system set by Webmin to send a reply to emails detected as spam, just add the following code in file /etc/webmin/postfix/autoreply.pl at line 77:

if ($header{'subject'} =~ m/[SPAM]/) { exit 0; }

If your spamassasin system add another string to the subject, change [SPAM] for a string corresponding to your system.

Once everything seems to work perfectly, you have to modify the file autoreply.pl stored in the library folder of webmin, since webmin will replace the thew one you already modified by the one in its library folder every time an autoreply is created/modified. To do that, just copy the one you modified over the one in webmin library folder:

cp /etc/webmin/postfix/autoreply.pl /usr/libexec/webmin/postfix/autoreply.pl

That's it that's all...

Gnome Panel auto-hide stop working

Something boring with gnome panel is that it stops hiding automatically quite usually.
A simple way to restore the hide/unhide function quickly when it happens is to use the command:
killall gnome-panel

This command will kill gnome-panel, and it will restart automatically. It's not very nice, but it works.

To ease the process, just create a launcher with this command. This way, you will be able to restore you gnome-panel functionality with a simple click.

Gnome Panel advanced customization

Ok, lets start with a few tricks to customize your gnome panel.
I will talk about few parameters of the gnome panel which can't be changed from the gnome panel configuration interface.

The things I really don't like with gnome panel and which are not customizable from the configuration interface are:
- the time it takes to start showing/hiding
- the fact that the bar can't hide completely
- the slow movement of the panel
- the time it takes before hiding


To change these parameters, it's necessary to launch gconf-editor. To do that press alt+F2, then type gconf-editor in the text area, and press enter.

The following windows will appear:

Then, browse the the folder tree on the left to go to: /apps/panel/toplevels/panel_0
The interface should look like that:
If you use more than one panel, you may have panel_0, panel_1, ... folder. Choose the one which is the panel you want to customize.
If you don't know which folder is which panel, just change a few values. Since changes are effective in real time, you will quickly see which panel you modify.

To change a parameter, just double click on it.

Now here are interesting parameters:

• animation speed: define the speed of the show/hide movement. Can be slow, medium or fast. If you want the panel to show/hide instantly, uncheck the parameter "enable_animations"
  
• auto_hide: check if you want your panel to hide automatically when the mouse leave it
• auto_hide_size: very useful, it's the size of the bar when it is hidden. Set it to 0 if you want the bar to disappear completely
• enable_animations: If you want the panel to show/hide instantly, uncheck it
• hide_delay and unhide_delay is the time the panel takes before hiding and unhiding in milliseconds (1 second = 1000 milliseconds)

All other parameters can be changed from the panel configuration interface.