Use openHAB and the Exec Action for checking if an application is running or not. If it is running an Switch item will have the state ON. If not the state will be OFF.
You can use as example following items:
Switch Firefox "Firefox"
Switch VirtualBox "VirtualBox"
Switch Kodi "Kodi"
Switch VLC "VLC"
You can add your items as example to your sitemap like shown in the following:
Switch item=Firefox label="Firefox"
Switch item=VirtualBox label="VirtualBox"
Switch item=Kodi label="Kodi"
Switch item=VLC label="VLC"
At first you have to add following to your /etc/openhab/misc/exec.whitelist file:
/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [f]irefox | /usr/bin/wc -l
/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [V]irtualBox | /usr/bin/wc -l
/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [k]odi | /usr/bin/wc -l
/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [v]lc | /usr/bin/wc -l
Off course you can run this over SSH and check if an application is running on a remote computer. Then as example /bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [v]lc | /usr/bin/wc -l will change to /usr/bin/sshpass -p <password> /usr/bin/ssh -tt -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no <user>@<ip> "/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [v]lc | /usr/bin/wc -l" 2> /dev/null. Then you have to replace <user> and <password> with the username and password of your remote computer. Also you have to replace <ip> with the ip address of your remote computer.
/usr/bin/sshpass -p <password> /usr/bin/ssh -tt -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no <user>@<ip> "/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [f]irefox | /usr/bin/wc -l" 2> /dev/null
/usr/bin/sshpass -p <password> /usr/bin/ssh -tt -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no <user>@<ip> "/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [V]irtualBox | /usr/bin/wc -l" 2> /dev/null
/usr/bin/sshpass -p <password> /usr/bin/ssh -tt -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no <user>@<ip> "/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [k]odi | /usr/bin/wc -l" 2> /dev/null
/usr/bin/sshpass -p <password> /usr/bin/ssh -tt -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no <user>@<ip> "/bin/ps aux | /bin/grep [v]lc | /usr/bin/wc -l" 2> /dev/null
With ps aux you can check which processes are running on a (remote) computer. With grep you can filter for a process. A better usage it to filter by using the application name like vlc. The problem is that using grep would also create a process. So if your application is not running there would be one process because you are using grep to look if there is a process or not. To fix it you can grep as example [v]lc instead of vlc. This means if vlc is not running there would be no response. If vlc is running there would be minimum one process because vlc can be running more than once at one time. At least we use wc for counting each line. Each process would have one line. So if vlc is not running with wc your result is 0. If vlc is running with wc the result is the number of times vlc is running.
To check if an application is running or not, you either have to trigger it manually, which means you would need another Switch item. When its state changes to ON, a Rule is executed that checks if the application is running or not as just described. A better approach is to simply check periodically whether an application is running or not. This is a time-based trigger. A time-based trigger can use cron expression. So we need a cron expression as trigger for our rule.
However, this leads to a major problem. How often or at what periodic time interval should one check whether an application is running or not? Every second? Every minute? Every hour?
Checking too often puts a lot of load on the computer. Checking too infrequently, on the other hand, leads to an inaccurate result. Possibly then to an erroneous one, because it was still assumed that an application is running and in the meantime it has already been terminated. Or just the other way around: The application is running in the meantime, but it is assumed that it is not running.
So the following rule is just an example of how this concept might work:
rule "Application checker"
when
Time cron "0/1 * * ? * * *"
then
var firefox = executeCommandLine("/bin/ps", "aux", "|", "/bin/grep", "[f]irefox", "|", "/usr/bin/wc", "-l")
firefox = Integer.parseInt(firefox)
logInfo("application check firefox", "the value is {}", firefox)
if (firefox > 0) {
Firefox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
Firefox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var virtualbox = executeCommandLine("/bin/ps", "aux", "|", "/bin/grep", "[V]irtualBox", "|", "/usr/bin/wc", "-l")
virtualbox = Integer.parseInt(virtualbox)
logInfo("application check virtualbox", "the value is {}", virtualbox)
if (virtualbox > 0) {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var kodi = executeCommandLine("/bin/ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[k]odi","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l")
kodi = Integer.parseInt(kodi)
logInfo("application check kodi", "the value is {}", kodi)
if (kodi > 0) {
Kodi.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
Kodi.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var vlc = executeCommandLine("/bin/ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[v]lc","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l")
vlc = Integer.parseInt(vlc)
logInfo("application check vlc", "the value is {}", vlc)
if (vlc > 0) {
VLC.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VLC.postUpdate(OFF)
}
end
If you want to use it over ssh it looks like following:
rule "Application checker"
when
Time cron "0/1 * * ? * * *"
then
var firefox = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[f]irefox","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
firefox = firefox.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
firefox = firefox.replace("\r\n", "")
firefox = Integer.parseInt(firefox)
logInfo("application check firefox", "the value is {}", firefox)
if (firefox > 0) {
Firefox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
Firefox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var virtualbox = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[V]irtualBox","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
virtualbox = virtualbox.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
virtualbox = virtualbox.replace("\r\n", "")
virtualbox = Integer.parseInt(virtualbox)
logInfo("application check virtualbox", "the value is {}", virtualbox)
if (virtualbox > 0) {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var kodi = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[k]odi","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
kodi = kodi.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
kodi = kodi.replace("\r\n", "")
kodi = Integer.parseInt(kodi)
logInfo("application check kodi", "the value is {}", kodi)
if (kodi > 0) {
kodi.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
kodi.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var vlc = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","|","/bin/grep","[v]lc","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
vlc = vlc.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
vlc = vlc.replace("\r\n", "")
vlc = Integer.parseInt(vlc)
logInfo("application check vlc", "the value is {}", vlc)
if (vlc > 0) {
VLC.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VLC.postUpdate(OFF)
}
end
If you are using Windows, I suggest you install PsTools and Git Bash. Both should be added to the PATH variable, then you can use the following rule:
rule "Application checker"
when
Time cron "0/1 * * ? * * *"
then
var firefox = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","-W","|","/bin/grep","firefox","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
firefox = firefox.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
firefox = firefox.replace("\r\n", "")
firefox = Integer.parseInt(firefox)
logInfo("application check firefox", "the value is {}", firefox)
if (firefox > 0) {
Firefox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
Firefox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var virtualbox = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","-W","|","/bin/grep","VirtualBox","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
virtualbox = virtualbox.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
virtualbox = virtualbox.replace("\r\n", "")
virtualbox = Integer.parseInt(virtualbox)
logInfo("application check virtualbox", "the value is {}", virtualbox)
if (virtualbox > 0) {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VirtualBox.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var kodi = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","-W","|","/bin/grep","kodi","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
kodi = kodi.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
kodi = kodi.replace("\r\n", "")
kodi = Integer.parseInt(kodi)
logInfo("application check kodi", "the value is {}", kodi)
if (kodi > 0) {
kodi.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
kodi.postUpdate(OFF)
}
var vlc = executeCommandLine(Duration.ofSeconds(1), "/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-tt","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","ps","aux","-W","|","/bin/grep","vlc","|","/usr/bin/wc","-l","2>","/dev/null")
vlc = vlc.replace("Connection to <ip> closed.", "")
vlc = vlc.replace("\r\n", "")
vlc = Integer.parseInt(vlc)
logInfo("application check vlc", "the value is {}", vlc)
if (vlc > 0) {
VLC.postUpdate(ON)
} else {
VLC.postUpdate(OFF)
}
end
And of course you can add other rules for running or stopping an application like following:
rule "Run VLC"
when
Item VLC received command ON
then
executeCommandLine("DISPLAY=:0","/usr/bin/vlc","--fullscreen")
end
rule "Quit VLC"
when
Item VLC received command OFF
then
executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/sudo","killall","/usr/bin/vlc")
end
Or if you want to do it over ssh it looks as example like following:
rule "Run VLC"
when
Item VLC received command ON
then
executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-t","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","DISPLAY=:0","/usr/bin/vlc","--fullscreen")
end
rule "Quit VLC"
when
Item VLC received command OFF
then
executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-t","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","/usr/bin/sudo","killall","/usr/bin/vlc")
end
If you will run it on Windows you need PsExec and PsKill from the PsTools:
rule "Run VLC"
when
Item VLC received command ON
then
executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-t","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","PsExec","-i","1","C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe","--fullscreen")
end
rule "Quit VLC"
when
Item VLC received command OFF
then
executeCommandLine("/usr/bin/sshpass","-p","<password>","/usr/bin/ssh","-t","-o","StrictHostKeyChecking=no","<user>@<ip>","PsKill","-t","vlc.exe")
end