macdaily 2018.11.21.dev36

Package day-care manager on macOS.

Platform:

OS X Yosemite, OS X El Capitan, macOS Sierra macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave

Language:

Python (version ≥ 3.4)

Environment:

Console | Terminal

MacDaily

• About

• Installation

• Configuration

• Usage Manual

  • Start-Up

  • Commands

  • Generals

• Troubleshooting

• TODO

---

About

Package day-care manager on macOS.

MacDaily is a mediate collection of console scripts written in Python with support of PTY. Originally works as an automatic housekeeper for Mac to update all packages outdated, MacDaily is now fully functioned and end-user oriented. Without being aware of everything about your Mac, one can easily work around and manage packages out of no pain using MacDaily.

Installation

NB

MacDaily runs only with support of Python from version 3.4 or higher. And it shall only work ideally on macOS.

Just as many Python packages, MacDaily can be installed through pip using the following command, which will get you the latest version from PyPI.

$ pip install macdaily

Or if you prefer the real-latest version and fetch from this Git repository, then the script below should be used.

$ git clone https://github.com/JarryShaw/MacDaily.git
$ cd MacDaily
$ pip install -e .
# and to update at any time
$ git pull

Also, for best performance of MacDaily, the notable automation tool expect is expected to be installed on your Mac. Recommended installation approach is from Homebrew, as shown below.

$ brew install expect

Or if you prefer not to install unbuffer, MacDaily will use UNIX script utility instead. Make sure that /usr/bin/script exists and /usr/bin is in your PATH environment variable.

For the worst case, MacDaily adopts ptyng as an alternative. It is a revised version of Python pty module, intended to support pseudo-terminal (PTY) on macOS with no further issue. To install ptyng, you may use the script below.

$ pip install macdaily[ptyng]
# or explicitly...
$ pip install macdaily ptyng

And for tree format support in dependency command, you will need dictdumper, then implicitly you can use the following script to do so.

$ pip install macdaily[tree]
# or explicitly...
$ pip install macdaily dictdumper

Configuration

This part might be kind of garrulous, for some may not know what’s going on here. 😉

Since robust enough, MacDaily now supports configuration upon user’s own wish. One may set up log path, hard disk path, archive path and many other things, other than the default settings.

NB

MacDaily now supports configuration commands, see manual of config command for more information.

The configuration file should lie under ~/.dailyrc, which is hidden from Finder by macOS. To review or edit it, you may use text editors like vim and/or nano, or other graphic editors, such as Sublime Text and/or Virtual Studio Code, or whatever you find favourable.

[Path]
# In this section, paths for log files are specified.
# Please, under any circumstances, make sure they are valid.
logdir = ~/Library/Logs/MacDaily                            ; path where logs will be stored
dskdir = /Volumes/Your Disk                                 ; path where your hard disk lies
arcdir = ${dskdir}/Developers                               ; path where ancient logs archive

[Mode]
# In this section, flags for modes are configured.
# If you would like to disable the mode, set it to "false".
apm     = true                                              ; Atom plug-ins
app     = true                                              ; macOS Applications
brew    = true                                              ; Homebrew Formulae
cask    = true                                              ; Homebrew Casks
cleanup = true                                              ; cleanup caches
gem     = true                                              ; Ruby gems
mas     = true                                              ; Mac App Store applications
npm     = true                                              ; Node.js modules
pip     = true                                              ; Python packages
system  = true                                              ; macOS software
tap     = true                                              ; Homebrew Taps

[Daemon]
# In this section, scheduled tasks are set up.
# You may append and/or remove the time intervals.
archive     = false                                         ; archive logs
bundle      = false                                         ; bundle packages
cleanup     = false                                         ; cleanup caches
config      = false                                         ; config MacDaily
dependency  = false                                         ; show dependencies
install     = false                                         ; install packages
launch      = false                                         ; launch daemons
logging     = true                                          ; log installed packages
postinstall = false                                         ; postinstall packages
reinstall   = false                                         ; reinstall packages
uninstall   = false                                         ; uninstall packages
update      = true                                          ; update packages
schedule    =                                               ; scheduled timing (in 24 hours)
    8:00                                                    ; update & logging at 8:00
    22:30-update                                            ; update at 22:30
    23:00-logging                                           ; logging at 23:00

[Command]
# In this section, command options are picked.
# Do make sure these options are available for commands.
update  = --all --quiet --show-log
logging = --all --quiet --show-log

[Miscellanea]
# In this section, miscellaneous specifications are assigned.
# Please, under any circumstances, make sure all fields are valid.
askpass = ...                                               ; SUDO_ASKPASS utility for Homebrew Casks
confirm = ...                                               ; confirm utility for MacDaily
timeout = 300                                               ; timeout limit for shell commands in seconds

Above is the default content of .dailyrc, following the grammar of INI files. Lines and words after number sign (#) and semicolon (;) are comments, whose main purpose is to help understanding the contents of this file.

In section Path, there are path names where logs and some other things to be stored. In section Mode, there are ten different modes to indicate if they are enabled or disabled.

You may wish to set the dskdir – path where your hard disk lies, which allows MacDaily to archive your ancient logs and caches into somewhere never bothers.

Please NOTE that, under all circumstances, of section Path, all values would better be a valid path name without blank characters (' \t\n\r\f\v'), except your hard disk dskdir.

Besides, in section Daemon, you can decide which command is scheduled and when to run such command, with the format of HH:MM[-CMD]. The CMD is optional, which will be any if omits. And you may set up which command(s) will be registered as daemons and run with schedule through booleans above. These boolean values help MacDaily indicate which is to be launched when commands in schedule omit. That is to say, when CMD omits in schedule, MacDaily will register all commands that set true in the above boolean values.

Also, in section Option, you may set up optional arguments for the daemons above. Do please make sure these commands are valid. And if omit, an empty arguments will be given.

Last but no least, in section Miscellanea, you should NEVER modify any contents under this section in order to keep MacDaily working. However, you may set up this part with config command.

Usage Manual

Start-Up

Before we dive into the detailed usage of MacDaily, let’s firstly get our hands dirty with some simple commands.

NOTE – all acronyms and aliases are left out for a quick and clear view of MacDaily

1. How to use MacDaily?

# call from PATH
$ macdaily [command ...] [flag ...]
# or call as Python module
$ python -m macdaily [command ...] [flag ...]

2. How to set up my disks and daemons?

$ macdaily config

3. How to relaunch daemons after I manually modified ~/.dailyrc?

$ macdaily launch

4. How to archive ancient logs without running any commands?

$ macdaily archive

5. How to update all outdated packages?

$ macdaily update --all

6. How to update a certain package (eg: hello from Homebrew)?

$ macdaily update brew --package=hello

7. How to update without a certain package (eg: update all packages except Python package ptyng)?

$ macdaily update --all --pip='!ptyng'

8. How to uninstall a certain package along with its dependencies (eg: pytest from brewed CPython version 3.6)?

$ macdaily uninstall pip --brew --cpython --python=3.6 --package pytest

9. How to reinstall all packages but do not cleanup caches?

$ macdaily reinstall --all --no-cleanup

10. How to postinstall packages whose name ranges between “start” and “stop” alphabetically?

$ macdaily postinstall --all --start=start --end=stop

11. How to show dependency of a certain package as a tree (eg: gnupg from Homebrew) ?

$ macdaily dependency brew  --tree --package=gnupg

12. How to log all applications on my Mac, a.k.a. *.app files?

$ macdaily logging dotapp

13. How to dump a Macfile to keep track of all packages?

$ macdaily bundle dump

Commands

MacDaily supports several different commands. Of all commands, there are corresponding aliases for which to be reckoned as valid.

Command	Aliases
archive
bundle
config	cfg
launch	init
install	i
update	up, upgrade
uninstall	un, unlink, remove, rm, r
reinstall	re
postinstall	post, ps,
dependency	deps, dp
logging	log

Generals

The man page of MacDaily shows as below.

$ macdaily --help
usage: macdaily [-h] command

Package Day Care Manager

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -V, --version  show program's version number and exit

Commands:
  macdaily provides a friendly CLI workflow for the administrator of macOS to
  manipulate packages

Commands for macdaily is shown as above and they are mandatory. For more detailed usage information, please refer to manuals of corresponding commands. For developers, internal details can be found in miscellanea manual. And here is a brief catalogue for the manuals.

• Archive Command

• Bundle Command

  • Dump Macfile

  • Load Macfile

• Cleanup Command

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

  • Node.js Modules

  • Python Packages

• Config Command

• Dependency Command

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Python Packages

• Install Command

  • Atom Plug-Ins

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

  • Ruby Gems

  • macOS Applications

  • Node.js Modules

  • Python Package

  • System Software

• Launch Command

  • Askpass Helper Program

  • Confirm Helper Program

  • Daemons Helper Program

• Logging Command

  • Atom Plug-Ins

  • Mac Applications

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

  • Ruby Gem

  • macOS Applications

  • Node.js Modules

  • Python Packages

  • Third-party Repositories

• Postinstall Command

• Reinstall Command

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

• Uninstall Command

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

  • Python Package

• Update Command

  • Atom Plug-Ins

  • Homebrew Formulae

  • Caskroom Binaries

  • Ruby Gems

  • macOS Applications

  • Node.js Modules

  • Python Package

  • System Software

• Developer Manual

  • Project Structure

  • Command Classes

  • Miscellaneous Utilities

    • ANSI Sequences

    • Print Utilities

    • UNIX script

Troubleshooting

1. Where can I find the log files?

   It depends. Since the path where logs go can be modified through ~/.dailyrc, it may vary as your settings. In default, you may find them under ~/Library/Logs/Scripts. And with every command, logs can be found in its corresponding folder. Logs are named after its running time, in the fold with corresponding date as its name.

   Note that, normally, you can only find today’s logs in the folder, since macdaily automatically archive ancient logs into ${logdir}/archive folder. And every week, ${logdir}/archive folder will be tape-archived into ${logdir}/tarfile. Then after a month, and your hard disk available, they will be moved into /Volumes/Your Disk/Developers/archive.zip.

2. What if my hard disk ain’t plugged-in when running the scripts?

   Then the archiving and removing procedure will NOT perform. In case there might be some useful resources of yours.

3. Which directory should I set in the configuration file?

   First and foremost, I highly recommend you NOT to modify the paths in ~/.dailyrc manually, EXCEPT your disk path dskdir.

   But if you insist to do so, then make sure they are VALID and available with permission granted, and most importantly, have NO blank characters (' \t\n\r\f\v') in the path, except dskdir.

TODO

• ✔️ support configuration

• ✔️ support command aliases

• ❌ reconstruct archiving procedure

• ❌ support gem and npm in all commands

• ❌ considering support more versions of Python

• ✔️ optimise KeyboardInterrupt handling procedure

• ✔️ review pip implementation and version indication

• ❌ add --user for pip commands