Question on Zenity (or Any Better Option)

edwin11 · 07-04-2013, 11:06 AM

Hi all,

I have a cron job running a backup script, and at the end of the job, I want it to shutdown my machine unless I tell it not to.

I achieve this by using Zenity at the end of the script:

Code:

/usr/bin/zenity --question --title="Backup Complete" --timeout=60 --text="Backup Complete; Proceed to Shutdown?" --ok-label="Yes" --cancel-label="No";
if [ "$?" -eq "5" ]; then
	/sbin/shutdown -h now;
fi

The problem is this: Sometimes I'm using the machine when the job runs. The Zenity prompt appears, and I happen to just press enter (as I was typing something in another window), and the machine shuts itself down immediately. This is because the "Yes" option is the default one.

I could, of course, rephrase the question to something like "Keep Running?" and swap the yes and no options such that the default "Yes" option will not trigger a shutdown. The problem is upon timeout (which means I'm not at the machine, and hence I want it to shutdown), $? will return the same value as the default option, and hence the machine will not shutdown.

Another possibility is for the prompt not to be in focus when it appears (so that any keypress will not apply to it), but there's no such option.

Any suggestion for a better solution to this?

Thanks and Regards,
Edwin

H_TeXMeX_H · 07-05-2013, 04:37 AM

I recommend Xdialog instead, as it does have a '--default-no' option.