$PID variable in helpers

[xsuchy]

I have process:

konqueror --preload

Which can be easily killed and does not need to be restarted again, it would be nice if I can write rule:

<app name="konqueror --preload" helper="kill $PID">

where $PID would be substituted by real PID before printing.

[FrostyX]

Sure, we can definitely have this feature, but I would rather helper="kill {PID}" format instead of helper="kill $PID", so we could simply use str.format(...). Don't you mind?

[xsuchy]

{PID} is good as well.

[FrostyX]

Hmm, what about when application has more instances (processes) ? Probably just print that kill helper for every instance?

How to restart:
    kill 1234; kill 4321; kill 5678

or maybe (i like it better)

How to restart:
    kill 1234
    kill 4321
    kill 5678

Its probably fine, but in default view

You should restart:
  * Some applications using:
      kill 1234; kill 4321; kill 5678  
      sudo service apache2 restart
      sudo service mpd restart
      ...

it doesn't look so friendly. But so far I don't know how to deal with it.

[xsuchy]

You can concate it:

   kill 1234 4321 5678

[xsuchy]

Hmm, but thinking about it... this can be done only if the helper string is identical. Because I can imagine helper script kill -USR1 {PID}

Anyway the functionality and usability is much more important. Visual style is less important.

[FrostyX]

As you said, concating can't work for every command, so I would prefer this kind of output:

How to restart:
    kill 1234
    kill 4321
    kill 5678

and one-liner with semicolons for default view. I agree that this feature is very important, so I will surely implement it. However I think it could look better than

You should restart:
  * Some applications using:
      kill 1234; kill 4321; kill 5678  
      sudo service apache2 restart
      sudo service mpd restart
      ...

so I will give it a thought,

[FrostyX]

Hmm, probably I will just print commented application's name after restart commands which use any {foo} argument and not use {name} at the same time.

Output will look like

kill 1234; kill 4321;  # konqueror

for this kind of helpers. Also I think it will avoid printing comment for most helpers which tells name of the application by themselves.

Advantage of this is clear - you can see what application will be killed, but still you can copy and paste the block of printed helpers.