[SOLVED] Want to make a script that generates a welcome file with text inside it

Sadshark · 06-03-2020, 05:37 AM

Hi all. I wanted to ask you guys a few questions about my first ever script I've made. The idea came to me today when I was building a custom linux distro (its ready and released now--don't worry, Im not here to fight that distro battle with folks). I found out a way to do it "Cheaply" i.e. without fancy tricks, just opening files from a an executable script, but I want to figure out how to do it the "cool" way, kapische? :P

So my idea was this:
I wanted to make an executable welcome file for my distro that
1. Opens a video
2. Generates a file with text inside it i.e. "welcome to my distro" on the desktop

The idea seemed so simple to me at first but I really blew my own mind trying to figure it out online. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds apparently. Anyways, does anybody know how I might go about doing this? Thanks

pan64 · 06-03-2020, 11:19 AM

opening a video is something like: vlc <path>

Exactly when did you want to play that video? after boot or login (or any other event?)
When did you want to put that text file onto the desktop? Will it change or is it a single action?

Sadshark · 06-03-2020, 06:52 PM

@Pan64 first off I wanted to say I genuinely appreciate your reply.

Secondly, I feel like I didnt explain myself correctly, so I want to reword what I said. So I want the script to:
1. open a video (in VLC like you said actually)
2. ideally, I'd like to do this next commands while the intro video is still playing, but I'm also okay with the next command running after the user closes the intro video.
3. next command would be like "touch welcome to (my distro)" on my desktop directory AND also write the welcome paragraph I want to that new file 'in the background while VLC is running (or after is fine too)
4. Open the welcome file in kate (thats the easy part)

so with that being said I hope I'm being a bit more descriptive now :]

edit: oh and I dont want the script to run automatically. I want people to open it after noticing it when opening their file browser for the first time. basically like a nifty little trick I want to perform here, at the end of day. lol

berndbausch · 06-03-2020, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sadshark

The idea seemed so simple to me at first but I really blew my own mind trying to figure it out online. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds apparently. Anyways, does anybody know how I might go about doing this? Thanks

Without knowing what your difficulties are, it's hard to advise. Does this help?

Code:

vlc video.mp4
echo Welcome > $HOME/Desktop/welcome.txt
kate $HOME/Desktop/welcome.txt

If you want to do things while the video is playing, add an "&" to the vlc line.
If you want to do certain things while the video is playing, and other things when the video is complete, it's slightly more complex (but by no means hard). I'd first get the simple case working, then increase complexity.

Sadshark · 06-08-2020, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Without knowing what your difficulties are, it's hard to advise. Does this help?

Code:

vlc video.mp4
echo Welcome > $HOME/Desktop/welcome.txt
kate $HOME/Desktop/welcome.txt

If you want to do things while the video is playing, add an "&" to the vlc line.
If you want to do certain things while the video is playing, and other things when the video is complete, it's slightly more complex (but by no means hard). I'd first get the simple case working, then increase complexity.

That works perfectly! Thanks so much. One thing I can offer that may help newbies is if you want to control the spacing and the line seperation of the file, put ' marks at either end of the text you wanna add, then type it in the script exactly like you want it to come out like.
example:
echo 'blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah'

If you dont use the ' marks the script will get confused and not write anything to the file, lol.