Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi,

I often use mksquashfs to compress directories before I copy them to another disk for backup. This works fine. But, if the directory is large, then the command takes a long time. At the moment I simply display a splash message "Working.." for an estimated completion time while it is in process.
I would like to show a GUI progress bar while the process is active. I thought I might be able to do this using the pv command - but even though I have read through many examples online, I just cannot seem to understand the syntax for the command to do what I want. Basically I want to:
- execute a mksquashfs <sourcedirectory> <new name.sfs> and while this is running I would like to display an Xdialog screen or a gtkdialog-splash screen showing the % completion - and if possible the estimated remaining time (although I'm guessing this last bit is probably not possible).

Is there anyone who can help me please.

mow9902 wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 7:30 am

Hi,

I often use mksquashfs to compress directories before I copy them to another disk for backup. This works fine. But, if the directory is large, then the command takes a long time. At the moment I simply display a splash message "Working.." for an estimated completion time while it is in process.
I would like to show a GUI progress bar while the process is active. I thought I might be able to do this using the pv command - but even though I have read through many examples online, I just cannot seem to understand the syntax for the command to do what I want. Basically I want to:
- execute a mksquashfs <sourcedirectory> <new name.sfs> and while this is running I would like to display an Xdialog screen or a gtkdialog-splash screen showing the % completion - and if possible the estimated remaining time (although I'm guessing this last bit is probably not possible).

Is there anyone who can help me please.

Here's script "cr-sfs" that I made some time ago already, it should do what you want, using yad for the initial gui and Xdialog for the progress bar.
Usage : e.g. ./cr-sfs /path/to/mydir

And the sfs will be created in the same location as the folder you chose.

EDIT:

... and if possible the estimated remaining time (although I'm guessing this last bit is probably not possible).

Indeed, that's not possible (as far as I know).
EDIT2: If you want to change mksquashfs options, e.g. blocksize, see lines 108-110

@mow9902

I guess the issue has been resolved with the assistance of fredx181.

I have come to this late and I wanted to suggest the wonder that is "PackIt-1.24 - a flexible Archiving/Compressing GUI" by @JakeSFR

viewtopic.php?t=6868

I must use this or his other application UExtract several times everyday ......their perfect for me!!

It does not give a percentage of progress per se, but provides information regarding the final output size. So it doesn't fully meet your requirements but both applications are useful to keep in the toolkit.

@fredx181

Thanks for this. However I'd like to use this in several different situations, and need the code for just the second screen you showed ie to execute the mksquashfs command and pipe the progress to the Xdialog screen. I will try to play around with bits and pieces of your code to see if I can do it - but my scripting skills are poor - so if you feel inclined to help me further I'd be grateful.

fredx181 wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 8:23 am

Here's script "cr-sfs" that I made some time ago already, it should do what you want, using yad for the initial gui and Xdialog for the progress bar.

@fredx181 Are you sure that the Xdialog progress bar still works as it is supposed to work?
In BW64 Xdialog doesn't show percentage anymore within the bar. I tried one of my old demos. Works in Slacko 5.6, but no percentage display in the bar in BW64:

#! /bin/bash
COUNT=0
( while :; do
	# Text above gauge bar (enclosed in XXX)
	echo "XXX"
	echo "Value: $COUNT"
	echo "XXX"
	# Text within gauge bar
	echo $COUNT
	# Prepare next while cycle
	COUNT=$((COUNT + 5))
	sleep .3
done) | Xdialog --gauge "" 0 0

MochiMoppel wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2024 4:21 am

fredx181 wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 8:23 am

Here's script "cr-sfs" that I made some time ago already, it should do what you want, using yad for the initial gui and Xdialog for the progress bar.

@fredx181 Are you sure that the Xdialog progress bar still works as it is supposed to work?
...

Yes, you are right, I tested earlier with older Xdialog, the new version in BWpup is built with GTK3, pity that it doesn't display percentage in progress bar.

@mow9902

Anyway, here's a much more basic script, usage e.g. ./cr-sfs /path/to/mydir /path/to/my.sfs and it will directly show the Xdialog progress.
If you use the newest Xdialog the percentage will show above the progress bar (not inside it, see pic below).
If you use the older Xdialog, just remove lines 11, 18 and 19 (edit: and 20 too) (not needed as percentage is probably already showing inside progress bar)
It doesn't do any checking, i.e. if directory exist or if the .sfs possibly exist already .
Tell me if it's still not exactly what you need.

#!/bin/bash

DIR="$1"
SFS="$2"

COMP="-comp xz -b 512k -Xbcj x86"    # set mksquashfs options

(
script -q -c 'stty rows 40 cols 100; mksquashfs '"'$DIR'"' '"'$SFS'"' '"$COMP"'' |while read -n 250 LINE ; do
NAME="$(basename "$SFS")"
PERC="$(echo $LINE | busybox strings |egrep '[0-9]\%' |awk '{print $NF}' | tail -1)"
echo "XXX"
echo "Creating 4.0 filesystem on:"
echo "\\n"
echo "$NAME"
echo "\\n"
echo "Close this Window to Cancel processing."
echo "\\n"
echo "\\n"
echo "$PERC"
echo "XXX"
echo $LINE | busybox strings |egrep '[0-9]\%'| cut -f1 -d% |awk '{print $NF}'|grep -v '\.' ;done &
) | Xdialog --title "Building Sfs  . . . " --gauge "" 12 90 0

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
SQUASHPID=$(ps -eo pid,cmd | grep "mksquashfs $DIR $SFS" | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }')
kill $SQUASHPID
echo "SFS creation canceled"
fi
rm -f typescript

exit 0

@fredx181

This should do the trick nicely. Thanks so much for the help.