too many mutts
 

On Feb 4, 3:50 pm, Ron Johnson <ron.l.john...@cox.net> wrote:

> I think I'd write a bash script to grep thru ps(1) and refuse to
> start a new instance if a mutt instance is already running.
>

Ok, I have that part. But is there a way to bring the already running
mutt process to the fore instead of just saying, "Mutt is already
running"?

Thanks

----------------

#!/bin/bash
SERVICE='Mutt'

if ps ax | grep -i $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
echo "$SERVICE is already running!!!"
else
gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=muttprofile --geometry=80x47 -
x mutt
fi


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too many mutts
 

On Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 21:50:33 +0000, Patter wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:00:19 +0100, BartlebyScrivener wrote:
> > Is there a script I could make that I could use to start mutt, and if
> > mutt were already running, then it could just take me to the already-
> > running instance of it, instead of starting a new mutt?
>
> Hacked up from a little perlish I had hanging around

Close but not as good as you could do - your script essentially
says "If mutt is running exit". A better approach would be to
use GNU Screen to allow the user to re-attach to a running mutt:

alias mutt='screen -D -R -S mutt mutt'

This means create a secreen session with name mutt (-S) running
wth command mutt - if one is already running with that name detach
it first.

The only drawback is this will get fiddly if you're running
nested screen sessions...

Steve
--
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http://www.debian-administration.org/


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too many mutts
 

BartlebyScrivener wrote:
> Is there a script I could make that I could use to start mutt, and if
> mutt were already running, then it could just take me to the already-
> running instance of it, instead of starting a new mutt?

> I know some Python if it could be done in there. But I suspect I need
> a bash script?

Chances are bash would be the last thing you want to use for something
like this. Often times WMs and DEs will have bindings for Perl or
Python. I've yet to hear of bindings written for bash.

The first part of the problem is easy. You've got the crude method
already offered of checking ps but that kind of fails if you're on a
multi-user system and someone else is running mutt. A simpler dotlock
in ~ would work universally. I know that's not part of your original
specification but it is unspecified whether the machine is multiuser so
I err on the side of universal solutions in those cases. ;)

As for the second issue, bringing the current terminal to the fore, is
where the environment specific bindings comes in. I don't know if
Fluxbox has such bindings for any scripting language but what you need
is for a way for a script to tell the WM to bring a specific window to
the top. Barring something like that I doubt there is any really neat
way to do it.

Maybe a change in work habits would be more appropriate? I got into the
habit ages ago of using multiple desktops and throwing specific tasks on
certain desktops. Communications, IE, email/im go on desktop 1. If I
need to work on those I pop over there where it's always open and always
on the top. Browsing is on 4. Productivity (programming, writing,
sysadmin) goes on desktop 3. By splitting it up that way I can dedicate
the entire screen to a task, organize the screen to fit that task and
not worry about opening specific programs from the taskbar. I only need
to know where the desktop buttons and those never change position. :)
As you can imagine no matter what mail client I use, GUI or CLI, I never
opened more than one because it always occupied the same space on
desktop 1.

--
Steve Lamb


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too many mutts
 

On Feb 4, 5:00 pm, Steve Kemp <s...@debian.org> wrote:
>
> alias mutt='screen -D -R -S mutt mutt'
>
> The only drawback is this will get fiddly if you're running
> nested screen sessions...
>

Hey, Steve, this works great. Thanks.
And I'm not smart enough to run a nested screen session, so I bet I'm
safe. :)

Thanks,

RD
http://dooling.com


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too many mutts
 

On Feb 4, 5:10 pm, "Steve Lamb" <g...@dmiyu.org> wrote:

> Maybe a change in work habits would be more appropriate? I got into the
> habit ages ago of using multiple desktops and throwing specific tasks on
> certain desktops.

Great suggestion. I don't use desktops enough.

Thanks for all of the quick advice.

RD


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too many mutts
 

On Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 12:36:15PM -0800, BartlebyScrivener wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am on Etch and using fluxbox mainly to manage windows. I use mutt
> for email. I start it with a key command.
>
> When I get many x-sessions and programs running at once, often mutt is
> running somewhere and I don't know it, so I do the mutt key command
> and start a 2nd mutt, then sometimes a third.
>
> Is there a script I could make that I could use to start mutt, and if
> mutt were already running, then it could just take me to the already-
> running instance of it, instead of starting a new mutt?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> I know some Python if it could be done in there. But I suspect I need
> a bash script?
I use screen

screen -DR mutt

keeps a sesion open, first time you have to start mutt, but yuo could add
something to cron tostart it at boot time ?
>
> I didn't see a mutt option that would accomplish this.
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
> RD
>
>
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>
>

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- George W. Bush
12/15/2003
Washington, DC

too many mutts
 

On 2008-02-04 22:52:02 +0000, Steve Kemp wrote:
> Close but not as good as you could do - your script essentially
> says "If mutt is running exit". A better approach would be to
> use GNU Screen to allow the user to re-attach to a running mutt:
>
> alias mutt='screen -D -R -S mutt mutt'
>
> This means create a secreen session with name mutt (-S) running
> wth command mutt - if one is already running with that name detach
> it first.

This is more or less what I do, but this is a bit more complex
since it has to handle the current display (as I also use Mutt
via SSH). See <http://www.vinc17.org/mutt/#smutt>.

> The only drawback is this will get fiddly if you're running
> nested screen sessions...

I think that my smutt script handles that in some way:

[...]
if [ "$TERM" = screen-bce ]; then
exec screen -t mutt "$0" -- ${@+"$@"}
[...]

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100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <http://www.vinc17.org/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arenaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)


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