udev doesn't run my script

[tinwelint]

Hi I'm setting up a backup script as discussed in this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=558413.

I've written a script for doing backups with rdiff-backup, and want to do it automatically every time I plug in my external HD.

Everything seems to work except the execution of my script through an udev rule. This is my setup:

/etc/udev/rules.d/59-autobackup.rules


KERNEL=="sdc[0-9]*", SYSFS{serial}=="10000E0009C24E5E", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/test.sh"


I'm using a simple script just for testing and it works well from the terminal:

/usr/local/bin/test.sh


#!/bin/bash

X11User=`who | grep :0\) | cut -f 1 -d ' '`
if [ -z "$X11User" ] ; then
exit
fi

export DISPLAY=":0.0"
export HOME="/home/$X11User"

sudo -u $X11User zenity --info --title "Rdiff-backup" --text "Running!" --height 100 --width 200


But running the udev-daemon in verbose mode and plugging my drive in gives this:



[14769] node_symlink: creating symlink '/dev/disk/by-label/aj-ext' to '../../sdc1'
[14769] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh'
[14769] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) 'This option is not available. Please see --help for all possible usages.'
[14769] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' returned with status 255
[14769] pass_env_to_socket: passed 877 bytes to socket '/org/freedesktop/hal/udev_event',


I really don't know what causes this.

[jinksys]

Does the script work if you change this line?



sudo -u $X11User zenity --info --title "Rdiff-backup" --text "Running!" --height 100 --width 200

sudo -u $X11User zenity --info --title "Rdiff-backup" --text "Running\!" --height 100 --width 200


Also, does the udev process have the rights to sudo to $X11User without a password?

[mssever]

Try calling set -x near the top of the script; that way you can see where the script is failing.

[tinwelint]

Ok, setting set -x gives:


[9078] node_symlink: creating symlink '/dev/disk/by-label/aj-ext' to '../../sdc1'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '++ who'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '++ grep ':0)''
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '++ cut -f 1 -d ' ''
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ X11User=aj'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ '[' -z aj ']''
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ export DISPLAY=:0.0'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ DISPLAY=:0.0'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ export HOME=/home/aj'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ HOME=/home/aj'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ sudo -u aj zenity --info --title Rdiff-backup --text 'Running\!' --height 100 --width 200'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) 'This option is not available. Please see --help for all possible usages.'
[9078] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' returned with status 255


Don't really understand what this means either. Maybe the password is needed. How should I supply it in that case?

[lswb]

udev rules run scripots with root permission, they are not running on any X session or tty.

Try removing sudo from the lines beginning with zenity, and adding this option to the end of those lines:

--display=':0'

This will open the zenity popup on the 1st X session display. I'm pretty sure there is a way to designate the "active" display, should there be more than one X session running, but I don't know offhand how to do that. Something to do with "console owner" maybe.

[tinwelint]

using:


--display=':0'


gives me:


[9755] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ zenity --info --title Rdiff-backup --text 'SKriptkör\!' --height 100 --width 200 --display=:0'
[9755] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) 'No protocol specified'
[9755] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) ''
[9755] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '(zenity:9758): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0'


Maybe the display has som other name? Don't have time to look into that right now though.

[lswb]

The leading single quote was left out of ':0' in your line.

[tinwelint]

Actually, it wasn't.
This is my script (in full):


#!/bin/bash
set -x

zenity --info --title "Rdiff-backup" --text "Running!" --height 100 --width 200 --display=':0'


And this is the output:



[11329] node_symlink: creating symlink '/dev/disk/by-label/aj-ext' to '../../sdc1'
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh'
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '+ zenity --info --title Rdiff-backup --text 'Running!' --height 100 --width 200 --display=:0'
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) 'No protocol specified'
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) ''
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' (stderr) '(zenity:11332): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0'
[11329] run_program: '/usr/local/bin/test.sh' returned with status 1


Is it treating the quotes in some strange way perhaps? I've tried both single (':0'), double(":0") and no (:0) quotes, always with the same result.

I'm going trekking in the scottish mountains and won't be able to investigate this further for two weeks.
Thanks for your help so far.

[lswb]

Man, that sounds like a great vacation!

I'm looking at the line you just posted and again, the error is lack of leading quote. You posted:


zenity --info --title Rdiff-backup --text 'Running!' --height 100 --width 200 --display=:0'

that should be --display=':0'

[lswb]

I was looking into this problem some more because I thought it would be useful for some scripts on my own system. After playing around with zenity some, it appears to me that it will not display a popup on another user's desktop, even if run by root. I don't know if this is designed into zenity itself or the underlying libraries.

However, I found a program called dnotify, available in the repositories, that can be run by a user, no udev rules required. It can run a command whenever the contents of a specified directory change in a specified manner. There are some similar programs you can find by searching for keywords like "notify" in synaptic. A command could be put in your .profile or added to Main Menu/System/Preferences/Session/Startup

Something like

dnotify -M /path/to/directory -e scriptname &

or just put the zenity command directly in the place of "scriptname" above if that will suffice. The -M option tells dnotify to run the command if any files in the directory are modified, other options are for file renaming, removal, creation, etc.