jjacky.com

First of all, I've shared before a PKGBUILD to build kalu from its branch next on github, but I had yet to upload it the the AUR. I'm not sure why I hadn't, but this has now been done.

So if you want to test the next version of kalu, you just need to switch from kalu to kalu-git in the AUR. And speaking of the next version of kalu, you can now send it "commands" simply by writing to a FIFO.

On start, kalu will create a FIFO named kalu_fifo_XXXX (where XXXX is kalu's process ID) under your runtime directory (i.e. $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR), and it is possible to send kalu "commands" simply by writing to this FIFO. Commands are simple text strings, followed by a new-line character (\n).

This can be used e.g. to pause kalu, or have it run its checks either from a terminal, a script, or even via keyboard shortcuts, instead of having to go click on its systray icon/menu.

Note that it is possible for some commands to, at times, be no-op. For example, sending a command to start a sysupgrade while kalu is running its check will do nothing.

Supported commands are:

• run-checks (or manual-checks) Run the manual checks, same as using menu "Check for Upgrades..."

• auto-checks Run the automatic checks. This is usually only triggered by kalu and cannot otherwise be triggered manually (except using the --auto-checks command line argument).

• show-last-notifs Re-show last notifications.

• toggle-pause Pause/resume automatic checks.

• sysupgrade Start a system upgrade. Like using menu "System upgrade..." the actual action (e.g. run kalu's updater, or start a command line) depends on your preferences.

• show-unread-news Show unread Arch Linux news

• show-recent-news Show recent Arch Linux news

• popup-menu Pops up the systray menu at current mouse pointer position.

If you're interested, don't hesitate to give it a try, and please report anything broken or that could be better.

And thanks to Danil Semelenov for the original idea.