(please also review the release notes for v359-v360)

Hijack v361 is now released.

-- new reimplemented ;@EXEC and ;@EXEC_ONCE macros. These now prefix the command string with "/bin/sh -c exec ", and pass /dev/null as stdin and /dev/console as stdout/stderr.

-- new kftpd SITE EXEC command, works same as above. Command output is NOT returned to the client, but the shell's exit status is returned as an indication of success/failure of the command string.

-- new ;@MENUEXEC macro to bind commands to the Hijack menu. Syntax is:

;@MENUEXEC menu_item_name commandline..

Go ahead and try it, but the actual commands are never executed in v361 -- haven't done that tricky bit yet (command exec requires a process, and the Hijack menu runs as an interrupt handler, not a process, so.. some work to do there yet).

Also, note that with the introduction of the /bin/sh prefix for all of the various EXEC situations, one can now use any shell extensions on the command line for pipes, I/O redirection, etc..

Cheers

Also on the EXEC thread, I'm planning to rename these macros to simpler, lowercase versions, like nearly all of the other Hijack config.ini settings.

Thus, ";@EXEC gpsapp" will become "exec gpsapp" or possibly "exec=gpsapp". There are definite coding advantages to this.

The ;@AC/DC and ;@HOME/WORK macros will remain as is, because the leading ";" is necessary for them to work (outside of the [hijack] section of config.ini).

This change will likely happen in (edit:) v362, with an overlap period and warnings for the existing syntax.

Cheers

Mark, thanks for implementing all this exec stuff! I'm looking forward to the day some enterprising person will implement the Empeg common installer. Until then, the site exec command will make installing apps much, much easier for end users.

On a side note, did you ever see the Kids in the Hall sketch where the "I'm crushing your head!" guy got his fingers broken by a gangster, then he went into finger rehabilitation? Your post about your finger reminded me of that .

This change will likely happen in v262, with an overlap period and warnings for the existing syntax.

I'd be impressed if you pulled that off.

I'm running 361, and I had a weird bug today, a lockup, that I've never seen on my player since owning it. Now sure if it's related. I was playing a tune in the spectrum graphic EQ looking visual w. the most lines, when suddenly the player locked up, but continued playing audio. However, the audio was very slow. Same pitch, but very, very choppy as if I was watching something in digitial video in slow motion. Neither HiJack nor the player software responded until after a power cycle.

My car does have low voltage at time (when accessories are on) and I have no way ot knowing if it's related to 361, but I thought I'd offer it up to see if anyone else had the same thing.

Does anyone at empeg have any comments about that "extra" code that this HiJack stripped out?

Any chance of a "launch" command which would do an "exec" and then allow the app to immediately bind to the input and display (perhaps after waiting until the player is loaded)? Obviously it would only make sense to have one of these in a config.ini, but for those of us who are going to always want a particular app executed *and* in the foreground (as if it were selected from the hijack menu) it'd be really convenient.

I promise you I have something in the works that's going to use all this stuff, by the way.