James A. A. Joyce's Journal: An Experimental Shell Script For FP Whores

#!/bin/bash

#
# slashbot
#
# A shell script for automatically and constantly
# checking the Slashdot front page for new stories
# in order to make getting the FP easier.
# Written in bash shell script because Perl sucks.
# Hopefully Slashdot doesn't fuck this up.
#
# How to use it? Just download it into a directory
# and run it. It doesn't need root access; it just
# makes a couple of temporary files in /tmp but it
# cleans up after itself, even after a Ctrl-C.
# It works as a run-forever daemon, and it
# should send out a message via 'wall' when a new
# story pops out; that part is untested.
#

# naptime: how long to sleep for between front page grabs in seconds
if [ "$1" ]
then
    NAPTIME="$1"    # first argument is naptime in seconds
else
    NAPTIME=60
fi

############################
# clean_die()
############################
function clean_die()
{
    rm -f /tmp/slashbot_listing[12].txt

    if [ "$1" != "" ]
    then
        exit $1
    else
        exit 0
    fi
}

############################
# get_front_page_titles()
#    This function outputs to standard output the
#    story titles listed on the "light" cut-down
#    version of the slashdot.org front page: it's
#    about 5-10KB; good for modem users and good for us!
############################
function get_front_page_titles()
{
    curl --max-time 40 'http://slashdot.org/index.pl?light=1' 2> /dev/null | \
        grep -o '<H2>.*</H2>' | \
        sed 's/<A HREF=.*\/\">//g' | \
        sed 's/<\/A>//g' | \
        grep -v '<H2>News for nerds, stuff that matters</H2>' | \
        sed 's/<H2>//g' | \
        sed 's/<\/H2>//g'
}

############################
# new_story_alert()
############################
function new_story_alert()
{
    wall slashbot: new Slashdot story: \
        \'$(head -1 /tmp/slashbot_listing2.txt)\'
}

trap 'clean_die' 2 3

# main program loop below

while [ 1 ]
do

    echo "Getting front page"
    get_front_page_titles > /tmp/slashbot_listing1.txt
    if test -a /tmp/slashbot_listing2.txt
    then
        echo "Comparing to old copy"
        diff /tmp/slashbot_listing[12].txt > /dev/null
        if [ "$?" == 1 ]
        then
            new_story_alert
        fi
    else
        echo "Notice: no old copy to compare"
    fi

    echo "Notice: sleeping for $NAPTIME seconds"
    sleep $NAPTIME
    echo "Notice: done waiting"

    echo "Getting front page"
    get_front_page_titles > /tmp/slashbot_listing2.txt
    echo "Comparing to old copy"
    diff /tmp/slashbot_listing[12].txt > /dev/null

    if [ "$?" == 1 ]
    then
        new_story_alert
    fi

    echo "Notice: sleeping for $NAPTIME seconds"
    sleep $NAPTIME
    echo "Notice: done waiting"

done

optimization.

[rkz]

inform when "New story will appear soon subscribers can see it now" thing comes up. So you can prepair.
Lower the naptime when this appears to get as close as possible to fp.

Re:The next version of the script has that feature

[rkz]

I use windows, I guess I'll have to knock up my own script in vbscript using wsh or something.
I was just suggesting a feature but thanks for implimenting!

Re:The next version of the script has that feature

[rkz]

I have cygwin and love it, even have KDE working under it, but your script does not work because cygwin does not have a /tmp I could rewrite it but i'd rather have a native solution.