[Solved] How to bind a shell command to a hotkey? (raspi2png)

Clyde

@roslof Thanks for reporting this and for the workaround. I'll admit that I didn't test the last version of the string (note to myself: always test things before putting them online, even slight alterations of existing things).

It can't be the length (alone), though. I tested the command echo "...1.........2.........3..." and so on to test a string limit for command in the raspi2png.conf, but it worked well up to the 140 characters that I tested.

This is the output of sudo systemctl status triggerhappy.service with the last version of @mitu's string:

Feb 24 09:11:54 raspi thd[1458]: Executing trigger action: raspi2png --pngname "$(ps a | grep RetroPie/roms | awk -F "/" 'NR==1 { print $NF }' | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//g; s
Feb 24 09:11:54 raspi thd[1458]: sh: 1: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

Thanks for the compliments, I want to add @Lolonois who provided the very first part of the command string.

@mitu My knowledge about bash fu is very limited. Do you have any idea what can cause this?

mitu

@roslof You shouldn't have :), now my reply doesn't make any sense.

Clyde

@mitu @roslof Right, I missed the deleted post and now I'm wondering what it may have been about. 😉

mitu

@Clyde Hm, I bet it's because it interprets the # as a comment start. Try this

raspi2png --pngname "/home/pi/$(ps a | grep RetroPie/roms | awk -F "/" 'NR==1 { print $NF }' | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//g; s/\\//g')"-$(date +%Y.%m.%d-%H.%M.%S).png

roslof

@Clyde sorry, man -- but it sounded like a sub-par solution to perms issues I was having. Since mitu advised not to follow the directions, I felt it best not to give that information to the public, in case they didn't get the warning.

mitu

@roslof It's ok to leave it - this way when someone googles for this advice will see that a reply with 'bad dog' has been added and think: "Hey, that's how you do it right".

Clyde

@mitu That works! I'll update my solution with this and add a remark about @roslof's workaround in case someone wants to run a script instead of a single command. Thank you both!

edit: Just when you posted your solution, I wanted to report that changing the length by removing the whitespaces before and after the pipes didn't change the point of cutting off the line. You were faster. 😉

@roslof As @mitu said, it's better (and widely seen as more honest and polite) to leave it and maybe crossing it out and/or commenting below it that it has been wrong. Just a friendly advice. 😊

mitu

@roslof 's solution is also better when you just want to change something to the script command, since you don't need to re-start the thd service or edit the .conf file - any edits to the .sh file will take effect immediately.

roslof

@Clyde Thanks man. Still new here.

Clyde

@mitu The script version even relays the output of the script commands to triggerhappy's status output. I wasn't sure if it would do that. But I will keep it as optional for my solution post, because it adds more complexity, and one command should be enough for most people.

@roslof You're welcome! Besides, in some cases can deletion be advisable, like in this thread from me where @meleu's solution made my own completely obsolete (and wrong for many reasons). But I still added a remark about it original content. 😇

Clyde

@roslof One question about your script variant: Is there a reason that you're using nohup and 0<&- &>/dev/null &? I'm asking out of curiosity and simplicity, because it seems to work as well if I just invoke the script by path and name, as do some triggerhappy guides I found online.

And since I linked to your solution in mine, could you please add a remark that the script has to be made executable? (In my example for the owner "pi", or for "others" if the owner is root, since my solution configures triggerhappy to run as that user.)

roslof

@Clyde As requested, I added a note in my previous post about setting the executable permission.

Also, you're absolutely right about my use of nohup. It's not necessary for such a simple/quick script. nohup ensures the process doesn't stop until it's done. Overkill for the near-instant execution of the script. Again, my newbie-ness is shining through.

Regardless -- Cool write-up on nohup, its uses, and why output needs to be considered for other, longer tasks:
https://www.maketecheasier.com/nohup-and-uses/

I revised my post with the simple path/script and included an edit note with my original nohup line for reference...
Cheers

Clyde

@roslof Perfect, thanks!

cyperghost

@Lolonois said in [Solved] How to bind a shell command to a hotkey? (raspi2png):

@hermit triggerhappy is not related to retropie. AFAIK %ROM% or $ROM is not available from the environment. However, to get the rom file name you may start with
basename `ps a | grep RetroPie/roms | head -1 | awk '{ print $NF }'`
Without a physical keyboard attached the tool jslisten may be an option.

This is definitly the master path for such purpose. Why it gets so less attention?
Together with the jslisten tool we can call any script and manipulate filenames (because we aren't restricted to one liners) ;)

Thx @Lolonois for this nice suggestion ;)

@mitu @Clyde
The triggerhappy solution is also nice but imho the joypad usecase is a real fine way to coop with.

Btw: You can always use GPIO inputs to call commands

Clyde

@cyperghost said in [Solved] How to bind a shell command to a hotkey? (raspi2png):

Btw: You can always use GPIO inputs to call commands

If you're not like me and prefer USB connections. ;) (because, I don't know, lazyness?)

cyperghost

@Clyde Well ... I think it's not lazyness. I think with this Breadboard unit on Amazon.de there is no space for any excuse ;)
So you develop your scripts and connections on this board and just take them over to your RetroPie ;)

Clyde

@cyperghost If I compare this to a ready-to-use usb device like a keyboard or game controller, I think I can still plead lazyness with a clear concience. ;)

cyperghost

@Clyde Now we are getting closer why I entered this thread ;)

If I compare this to a ready-to-use usb device like a keyboard or game controller

So does triggerhappy work out of the box with joypads? If yes then this would be a real cool deal ;)

Maybe I will post a thread of annother solution that's only script based ;) Stay tuned ;)

mitu

@cyperghost said in [Solved] How to bind a shell command to a hotkey? (raspi2png):

So does triggerhappy work out of the box with joypads?

If it's reading the events correctly from /dev/input/eventX, I see why not. You can verify like @clyde did via thd --dump /dev/input/*. Looking at the supported event types (thd --listevents), I think it should work.

cyperghost

@mitu Yes I'm reading the github content now. Sounds feasible for me to get this work with js0 as input source. Even one issue on github explainded that there were inputs of buttons detectable.

But I'm also in annother doc for retropie: Take and Scrape Your Own Screenshots. There it is explained

How to setup the screenshot function with button
How to retrieve Screenshot name from ROM name
How to store them per system

The only minus point of the ~~raspi2png~~ internal retroarch solution is... this will work (of course) only in lr- core emulatores ;) Or did I misunderstood the whole thread?