[How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller

Clyde

Hi folks,

edit: Dirty hack deleted that broke controller support in other menus. Read the next post from @meleu for a clean and working solution. 😊

Cheers
Clyde

meleu

@clyde I may be wrong, but I think the way you're doing can possibly bring some problems like not launching joy2key.py properly in later instances of retropie_setup.sh (or any other joy2key client).

My untested suggestion

Add this to your .bashrc (not your .profile):

export scriptdir="$HOME/RetroPie-Setup"
source "$HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/helpers.sh"
joy2keyStart

And add this to your .bash_logout (create the file if it doesn't exist):

joy2keyStop

Explaining

No parameters to joy2keyStart will use the default ones:
/dev/input/jsX kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x20.

Advantage/difference from your approach:

jsX: means every connected controller (not only js0 or js4, for example)
0x20 (the last argument) means <space>, and your approach is using 0x9, meaning <tab>. I think it's not an issue for your goal, right?

Also, adding joy2keyStop to your .bash_logout will stop joy2key.py when you log out from a subshell, making it "sensible" to new joysticks [dis]connections on later instances joy2key.py.

cyperghost

@clyde It is a real cool idea but this one has it's pitfalls. There are wonderfull commands. like history | tail -n50
This hinders direct access to .bash_rc file ;)

Clyde

First and foremost, thank you very much for your help.

@meleu said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

@clyde I may be wrong, but I think the way you're doing can possibly bring some problems like not launching joy2key.py properly in later instances of retropie_setup.sh (or any other joy2key client).

Why is that? Just curious and willing to learn.

Add this to your .bashrc (not your .profile):
source "$HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/helpers.sh"
joy2keyStart

Alas, this doesn't work and gives me the error -bash: /scriptmodules/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py: no such file or directory.

Advantage/difference from your approach:

jsX: means every connected controller (not only js0 or js4, for example)

Ah, I wondered about the jsX and I thought this would only work from within a script.

0x20 (the last argument) means <space>, and your approach is using 0x9, meaning <tab>. I think it's not an issue for your goal, right?

Right, I just copied the line from runcommand.sh. 😇

cyperghost

@clyde said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

Why is that? Just curious and willing to learn.

Try it yourself. Just start the command /opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py /dev/input/js0 kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x09 & twice and you see you will do two inputs at once.

Start it three times, you will make three hops... and so on.

Clyde

@clyde said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

@meleu said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

@clyde I may be wrong, but I think the way you're doing can possibly bring some problems like not launching joy2key.py properly in later instances of retropie_setup.sh (or any other joy2key client).

Why is that? Just curious and willing to learn.

A test confirmed your concerns. With my approach, my controller doesn't work in retropie_setup.sh anymore. I watched the instances of joy2key in htop: One instance is created at boot, another one when I exit ES to the shell. Both remain even when I exit the shell back to ES. Subsequent visits to the shell don't increase the number of joy2key instances any further. Starting retropie_setup.sh from ES Retropie menu kills the second instance (judging by its pid), but the remaining instance don't work in the setup's menu. Just mentioned for your information.

I still would like to know the why behind it, though. 😌

edit:
@cyperghost: My post collided with yours. I still wonder why multiple instances of joy2key can't coexist together, especially if they are mapped to the same keys. I just lack the knowledge about the internals of the Linux input system.

cyperghost

@clyde They can coexists together but not if they use the same joystick number js{0...9}. But it is in general not a good programming style if you let called processes be in the wild. So you catch it's PID via $! routine

cyperghost

@Clyde So see your attempt as first try we can to some evolution on the hop ;)

1. Try to call joy2key

call background processes and forget to terminate them

You see the results it can cause in your script

2. Try to call joy2key

call background process, and terminate it's process by nane - after there i no need of it. So you make your call with joy2key, and just use pkill -f joy2key

That's a shotgun, all processes which are called joy2key are terminated. Easy and works in most situations ;)

3. Try to call joy2key

call background process, catch it's process ID and terminate it - after there i no need of it. Catch it's PID with $! command and then kill this one PID

Much better isn't it? So you can avoid answer people do like .... your script causes this and that...

4. Try to call joy2key

function start_joy(){
            "$ROOTDIR/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py" js0 kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x09 &
            JOY2KEY_PID=$!
}

function end_joy(){
      if [[ -n "$JOY2KEY_PID" ]]; then
        kill -INT JOY2KEY_PID
    fi

}

So we have funtion calls, and catch PID but still have only one joystick in action... We can do that better?

5. Try to call joy2key

function start_joy(){
        local joy_find; local i
        joy_find=$(find /dev/input/js?)
        for i in ${joy_find[@]}; do
            "$ROOTDIR/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py" "$i" kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a 0x09 &
            JOY2KEY_PID+=("$!")
        done
}

function end_joy(){
    if [[ -n "$JOY2KEY_PID" ]]; then
        kill -INT "${JOY2KEY_PID[@]}"
    fi
}

Much better all instances of js{...} are called but we have multiple instances of joy2script running (but each sessions is assigned to only one joypad) but this works very good but is waste of resources .... but we are 80% done and understood how to call functions and how to create arrays in bash ;)

BTW: the use of find here is very unprofessional. You must take care of word splitting. So the answer if someone asks why you did you do that this way, the only smart anwer is: I know what I'm doing ;)

6. Try to get joy2key running

readonly JOY2KEY_SCRIPTLOC="$HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/helpers.sh"
readonly CONFIG=(kcub1 kcuf1 kcuu1 kcud1 0x0a kf10 0x20 kf9)
source "$JOY2KEY_SCRIPTLOC"
scriptdir="$HOME/RetroPie-Setup"

# We call the script with connected Joypads only, you can leave array CONFIG empty then you will use default...
joy2keyStart ${CONFIG[@]}

# Do here your actions

# ......

joy2keyStop # Terminate joy2key python script

That's the professional way and it's much easier to use in your code ;)

Enjoy ;)

meleu

@clyde said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

First and foremost, thank you very much for your help.

@meleu said in [How-To] Browse the bash history with a game controller:

@clyde I may be wrong, but I think the way you're doing can possibly bring some problems like not launching joy2key.py properly in later instances of retropie_setup.sh (or any other joy2key client).

Why is that? Just curious and willing to learn.

because runcommand.sh and retropie_setup.sh always check if there's an instance of joy2key.py running before launching it.

Add this to your .bashrc (not your .profile):
source "$HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/helpers.sh"
joy2keyStart
Alas, this doesn't work and gives me the error -bash: /scriptmodules/supplementary/runcommand/joy2key.py: no such file or directory.

whoops! I missed a detail, the first line below.

export scriptdir="$HOME/RetroPie-Setup"
source "$HOME/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/helpers.sh"
joy2keyStart

Edited my previous post accordingly.

cyperghost

@meleu Yes the litte export ;)

Clyde

@meleu @cyperghost The export did the trick. It works now and doesn't break the other menu controls. 😄 Thank you for all the effort and explanations. I learned a lot today, as may others who stumble upon this thread, too.

I edited my opening post to a mere reference to @meleu's solution. 😌