Ubuntu shutdown timer script

2013-04-03 15:22 dennis iversen

Tags: scripts-and-functions cron hello-world

In the evening I like to watch TV while falling asleep. I usually start a shutdown process with the following command: sudo shutdown -h +45 or something slightly similar, which shutdowns the computer in 45 minutes.

I wanted to make this even easier, so I decided to create a small script which could automate this process.

Create gnome launcher

Right click on your desktop a find create launcher

I added the following:

• Name [shutdown]
• Comment [Will shutdown computer in 45 minutes]
• Command [/home/dennis/bin/shutdown.php]
• Run in terminal [Click check box]

In e.g. Ubuntu 12.10 this menu item is not there any more, so there you will have to do a:

sudo gnome-desktop-item-edit /usr/share/applications/ --create-new

In the last case the launcher is placed in Applications -> other -> shutdown. Then you can just drag it to the desktop.

Shutdown indicator script

The script /home/dennis/bin/shutdown.php just creates a file called (in my case) /home/dennis/bin/.shutdown. The script looks like the following the following, and it is created when I click the launcher:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

// create .shutdown file 
// indicates that we will shut down

$path = realpath(__DIR__);
$check_file = "$path/.shutdown";

// creating file to indicate that we will shutdown
file_put_contents ($check_file, 'OK');

chmod the script to 777:

sudo chmod 777 shutdown.php

Now you can run the script by pressing the shutdown icon. And see that it creates the .shutdown file

Add a shutodwn script

Then I add a script (which will check for the .shutdown file, remove the .shutdown file, and then shutdown:

<?php

// checks if shutdown file exists
// that indicates that we will shut down
// if it exists we shutdown

$path = realpath(__DIR__);
$check_file = "$path/.shutdown";

if (file_exists($check_file)) {
    // unlink file so that we does not shutdown 
    // again after every restart
    $res = unlink($check_file);
    if ($res) {
        exec('sudo shutdown -h +45');
    }
}

I placed this in /home/dennis/bin/shutdown_check.php.

Add a cronjob

Then I added a cronjob to test if the .shutdown file is created or not. It checks once every minute.

It looks like this:

* * * * * root php /home/dennis/bin/shutdown_check.php

And now I just need to click the launcher and my computer shutdowns after 45 minutes.

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