Script to run a program

bluedude2288 · 06-11-2004, 02:15 PM

I want to write a small BASH script that will run when I play and mp3, i want it to check if gmplayer is open then if it is kill it and reopen it with the new song if its not open just open it and play the song, how do i do this, the reason i need this is if i go to play a song and one is playing it opens another so i get errors saying sound card is in use.

slakmagik · 06-11-2004, 02:39 PM

ps, grep, kill, test, if...then...else...fi, mplayer flags. Those would be the main ingredients. Just grep ps for whether it's running and kill it if it is, and don't if it's not. The man pages for those items will give full details.

Ought to be an option to switch songs in mplayer, but I dunno - I use mplayer for video and xmms for audio.

Hko · 06-11-2004, 04:13 PM

Easier yet:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
killall gmplayer
gmplayer $1

If you call the script myplayer, then start with:

shell$ ./myplayer song_to_play.mp3

bluedude2288 · 06-11-2004, 05:13 PM

Ok thanks for the replies, but one other question, how do you send a key command to a specific program from in the script, this is because when i do a killall i get an error dialog saying terminated by 15 or something similar, insted to close the program i'd like to send it the escape key or q key to close it.