GeekTool is a great application for OS X that allows you to display the contents of shell scripts, images, and files directly on the desktop. This page provides some scripts that I have written or adapted from others I’ve found to provide useful information on the desktop with GeekTool.
I put all of my scripts into ~/bin/gt-scripts/ to keep them all organized and together.
Scripts
The following are scripts that I use with GeekTool. They were either written by me or were found elsewhere and adapted/improved or otherwise changed to suit my needs.
IP Information
This script displays your current local and external IP addresses.
gt-ipinfo:
#!/bin/sh
external=$(curl -s www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp | awk {'print $1'})
internal0=$(ifconfig en0 | grep "inet" | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | grep -v inet6 | cut -d ' ' -f 2)
internal1=$(ifconfig en1 | grep "inet" | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | grep -v inet6 | cut -d ' ' -f 2)
echo "External : ${external}"
if [ "${internal0}" != "" ]; then
echo "Ethernet : ${internal0}"
fi
if [ "${internal1}" != "" ]; then
echo "Ethernet : ${internal1}"
fi
Mini-Calendar
This script displays the calendar for this month with the current day hashed out.
gt-cal
#!/bin/sh cal | sed "s/^/ /;s/$/ /;s/ $(date +%e) / $(date +%e | sed 's/./#/g') /"
Uptime, CPU/RAM usage
This script displays current uptime as well as RAM and CPU usage on the system.
gt-cpustats
#!/bin/sh
# in 10.5 use the following:
#cpu=$(top -l 1| grep 'Load Avg' | awk '{print $12, $13}')
# in 10.6 use the following:
cpu=$(top -l 1|grep 'CPU usage' | awk '{print $7, $8}')
inactivemem=$(top -l 1 | awk '/PhysMem/ {print $6}')
freemem=$(top -l 1 | awk '/PhysMem/ {print $10}')
if [ "$(echo ${inactivemem} | egrep '.*G$')" ]; then
inactivemem=$(echo ${inactivemem} | cut -d 'G' -f 1)
let inactivemem=${inactivemem}*1024
else
inactivemem=$(echo ${inactivemem} | cut -d 'M' -f 1)
fi
if [ "$(echo ${freemem} | egrep '.*G$')" ]; then
freemem=$(echo ${freemem} | cut -d 'G' -f 1)
let freemem=${freemem}*1024
else
freemem=$(echo ${freemem} | cut -d 'M' -f 1)
fi
let freemem=${freemem}+${inactivemem}
freemem=$(echo "scale=2; ${freemem} / 1024" | bc)
uptime=$(uptime | awk '{print $3 " " $4 " " $5 }' | sed -e 's/.$//g')
echo "Uptime : ${uptime}"
echo "CPU : ${cpu}"
echo "RAM : ${freemem}G"
Disk Usage
This script shows current mounted volumes and disk usage, separating local and remote volumes:
gt-df
#!/bin/sh
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_CTYPE=C
local=$(df -hl | egrep -v '(devfs|fdesc)')
remote=$(df -h | egrep -v '(devfs|fdesc|/dev/disk|map)')
echo "Local filesystems:\n\n${local}\n"
if [ "$(echo ${remote} | grep Volumes)" != "" ]; then
echo "Remote filesystems:\n\n ${remote}\n"
fi
Weather
This script displays current weather conditions. You will need to change the p= value in the URL to your own location code or you’ll see what crappy weather we currently have in Edmonton.
gt-weather:
#!/bin/sh
weather=$(curl --silent "http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=CAXX0126&u=c" | grep -E '(Current Conditions:|C<BR)' | \
sed -e 's/Current Conditions://' -e 's/<br \/>//' -e 's/<b>//' -e 's/<\/b>//' -e 's/<BR \/>//' -e 's/<description>//' -e 's/<\/description>//')
# doing it this way gets rid of a preceeding blank line
echo ${weather}
The Hit List
I really like Potion Factory’s The Hit List but only found a script written in Ruby that would let me get the information I wanted. I’m not 100% satisfied with this script so it will likely be updated in the future yet, but this two-script combo works pretty well for my needs right now. It is a combination of Python and AppleScript.. AppleScript gets the data from The Hit List and Python calls the AppleScript and does all the formatting of the output. This way I can have my upcoming list pretty much in my face all the time.
hitlist.scpt
tell application "System Events" to if (name of every process) contains "The Hit List" then
set theList to ""
set lf to (ASCII character 10)
tell application "The Hit List"
set upTasks to every task in upcoming list
set todayTasks to every task in today list
set allTasks to upTasks & todayTasks
repeat with aTask in allTasks
if completed of aTask is true then
set checkbox to "/"
else if canceled of aTask is true then
set checkbox to "x"
else
set checkbox to "-"
end if
set taskText to title of aTask
set taskStart to start date of aTask
set taskDue to due date of aTask
set theList to theList & checkbox & " |" & taskText & "|" & taskStart & "|" & taskDue & lf
end repeat
end tell
return theList
end if
gt-hitlist.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, commands, re, calendar
from datetime import date
re_tag = re.compile(r'@\S+')
re_context = re.compile(r'/\S+')
def print_item(todo):
item = re_tag.sub(' ', todo['item']) # not working
if todo['start'] == '0':
start = 'TODAY!'
prefix = '!!!'
elif todo['start'] == '1':
start = 'Tomorrow'
prefix = '***'
else:
start = 'in %s days' % todo['start']
prefix = ' +'
pdue = ' '
if todo['due'] == '0':
due = ' *** TASK IS DUE TODAY! ***'
pdue = '!!'
elif todo['due'] == '1':
due = ' Due: Tomorrow'
elif todo['due'] == '-1':
due = ''
else:
due = ' Due: in %s days' % todo['due']
print '%s%s %s' % (pdue, prefix, item)
print ' Start: %s %s' % (start, due)
def trans_date(input_date):
#Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:00:00 AM
if input_date == 'none' or input_date == 'missing value':
return '-1'
# need to handle overdue tasks
(dname, month, day, year, time, extra) = input_date.split(' ')
dname = dname.split(',')[0]
day = day.split(',')[0]
(hour, min, sec) = time.split(':')
month = list(calendar.month_name).index(month)
today = date.today()
tdate = date(int(year), int(month), int(day))
timedue = str(abs(tdate - today)).split(' ')[0]
if timedue == '0:00:00':
timedue = '0'
return(timedue)
output = commands.getoutput("osascript /Users/vdanen/bin/gt-scripts/hitlist.scpt")
lines = output.split('\n')
contexts = []
tags = []
todos = {}
count = 0
for items in lines:
try:
(status, item, start, due) = items.split('|')
except:
continue
if due == 'missing value':
due = 'none'
if status.strip() == '/' or status.strip() == 'x':
# don't add completed or cancelled items
continue
todos[count] = {}
todos[count]['item'] = item.strip()
todos[count]['status'] = status.strip()
todos[count]['start'] = trans_date(start.strip())
todos[count]['due'] = trans_date(due.strip())
p_ctxt = item.split(' ')
for x in p_ctxt:
# regexp for '@+' and '/+'
if re_tag.search(x):
x = x.split('@')[1]
todos[count]['tags'] = []
todos[count]['tags'].append(x)
if not x in tags:
tags.append(x)
if re_context.search(x):
x = x.split('/')[1]
todos[count]['contexts'] = []
todos[count]['contexts'].append(x)
if not x in contexts:
contexts.append(x)
count += 1
notags = []
# slight bug here: if an item has more than one tag, it will
# go in only one list, not both
print 'Upcoming The Hit List items'
tags.sort()
# also need to sort by due/start dates
for t in tags:
count = []
for x in todos:
if 'tags' in todos[x]:
for ptag in todos[x]['tags']:
if ptag == t:
count.append(x)
else:
if not x in notags:
notags.append(x)
if len(count) > 0:
print '\nTODO items tagged "%s"\n' % t
for x in count:
print_item(todos[x])
if len(notags) >= 1:
print '\nTODO items with no tags\n'
for x in notags:
print_item(todos[x])
Revision History
- 09/01/2009 - fix the gt-hitlist.py script due to output errors from 10.6
- 08/30/2009 - fix the gt-cpustats script with info for 10.6
- 08/14/2009 - initial article