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Asked: 2014-01-05 14:12:04 +0800 CST

How to run a script each time I login AND unlock session

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In Saucy salamander I need to run a script each time I login then each time I unlock the session after manual lock or auto sleep. I can't use "Startup Application" for that because it wouldn't trigger on unlock.

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2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Found this, which was made by Ubuntu Forums user opus1. Maybe it can help.

    This is what the post gives as a solution:

    For anyone interested, here's what I did: I looked at the logs (specifically /var/logs/auth.log) and saw that an entry is made when ever the password is checked and accepted. My log said:

    Aug  7 14:10:57 mumble gnome-screensaver-dialog: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring

    Ultimately I found an application called "Swatch" which monitors a log for you and will run a script when a string that you specify appears in that log. Swatch requires a config file (.swatchrc), and mine looks like this:

    watchfor /unlocked login keyring/
  exec /root/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/wakeServer

    where "/unlocked login keyring/" is the string to look for and "exec" defines the script to run when it is found. My wakeServer script looks like this:

    #!/bin/bash

#wake the server
wakeonlan AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

#record info in the log file
myVar="woke server at login:"
echo "$myVar">>/home/me/.serverWake.log
date>>/home/me/.serverWake.log

    where "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF" is the MAC address of my server.

    Swatch will need to be entered as a start-up application (create an entry in System | Preferences | Startup applications called "runSwatch" and make the command "swatch --tail-file /var/log/auth.log --daemon". (In Debian, only root can read logs So the start up command needs to be prefaced with "sudo" and swatch will need to be added to the sudoers file without a password. In Ubuntu it appears non-root users can read logs. There could be a security issue with granting password-less access to swatch, but in my case it seems acceptable).

    So far it has worked perfectly!

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  2. .bashrc will be the place you want to use for that process. .bashrc holds users' profile and all of configurations, and that's what system will read first thing when you log in, therefore that's where you want to put your codes for your customized scripts to run upon logging in.

    Here's an example from my codes that I use. This is code I added to the bottom line of .bashrc:

    if [ -f ~/.myscripts ]; then
. ~/.myscripts
fi

    And .myscripts holds my scripts in bash shell that I want to be fired off when I log in.

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