Wanting custom scripts to run at start up and shutdown

jmcdra

I've written some scripts to transfer PSP save files to a USB and from the USB to the PSP save folder. They work when they are run manually however I would like for them to run automatically at start up and shutdown. How would I go about doing that?

Existing scripts:
Copy to Retropie (Want it to run at start up)

#!/bin/bash

cp -R /media/usb0/retropie-mount/Savefiles/PSP/SAVEDATA/* /opt/retropie/configs/psp/SAVEDATA/

Copy to USB (Want it to run at shutdown)

#!/bin/bash

cp -R /opt/retropie/configs/psp/SAVEDATA/* /media/usb0/retropie-mount/Savefiles/PSP/SAVEDATA

Help would be much appreciated :D

cyperghost

@jmcdra Best way would be to edit
/opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh and then add your commands before and after the emulationstation call.

jmcdra

Thank you :) I'll give it a try :D

Lolonois

The suggested solution by @cyperghost works until you rewrite the autostart.sh via retropie_setup.sh.

Before

<statement A>
emulationstation #auto
<statement B>

After:

<statement A>
<statement B>
emulationstation #auto

Here's why (whatever should be 'autostarted' is added to the end of autostart.sh (>>): retropie setup scripts

The scripting functionality of emulationstation (scroll down to Scripting topic) has currently an event for "quit" - but not for "startup" (yet).

So either you refrain from rewriting your autostart.sh via the retropie_setup.sh script
-or-
you put pre-emulationstation statements (<statement A>) in autostart.sh and the post-emulationstation <statement B> commands into the /home/pi/.emulationstation/scripts/quit/ folder. In the latter case the autostart.sh can safely be rewritten without messing the order as sketched above.

You may table this in the "Ideas and development" section, if there is a general use for a "startup" event hook in emulationstation (so there is no more interference with the retropie_setup.sh rewrite of autostart.sh).

Cheers

cyperghost

@Lolonois Thanks for pointing out

jmcdra

@Lolonois
To make sure I'm understanding you, my autostart.sh should look like this:

cp -R /media/usb0/retropie-mount/Savefiles/PSP/SAVEDATA/* /opt/retropie/configs/psp/SAVEDATA/
emulationstation #auto

And just move the post emulationstation script into a folder,
/home/pi/.emulationstation/scripts/quit/ and the system will know to run it at shutdown?

All the stuff I'm seeing about shutdown scripts seems to be implying that you need to create a .service file. I'm not questioning your reasoning here, I'm just trying to understand the instructions so I don't delete my save files by accident.

Thanks in advance! :)

Lolonois

@jmcdra The first part is right.

For the secon part put a script in /home/pi/.emulationstation/scripts/quit/myquit.sh and mark it executable (chmod a+x myquit.sh). Or pick a more memorizable name for myquit.sh.

For testing I would start with a simple touch /home/pi/touched_es_start in autostart.sh
and in the myquit.sh: touch /home/pi/touched_es_quit.

Start emulationstation as usual, wait a minute (or more), then quit ES. On the console check that the filenames (touched_es_start and touched_es_quit) have a timestamp that differs the time you waited (e.g. a minute or more).

If this works out well, you did it right and can proceed with your script content.

Needless to say to stash away a backup of your precious data before you start this experiment if you are worried about losing/overwriting it accidentially.

Cheers

jmcdra

@Lolonois It worked! Thank you so much! That was so much simpler than all the stuff I was finding on google. I really appreciate it! :D

Lolonois

You're welcome.

On more thing: As a courtesy for other user here, please add [Solved] or similar to the topic of your original post.