/ 
App-Taskflow-1.0
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/ taskflow

NAME

taskflow - a light weight file based taskflow engine

VERSION

Version 1.0

SYNOPSIS

  • create a configuration file, synatx defined below - default name will be `taskflow.config`

  • run `taskflow`

DESCRIPTION

`taskflow` is a tiny workflow engine. It could be run as a normal process, as a background process or as a daemon.

It automates many routine tasks such as moving and deleting files, sending emails if some new files created or other tasks.

Files will be chosen by patterns and these patterns can be written in a configuration file. For each file which is mached by a pattern, a new process will be started.

If the process produces any output, it will be saved in a file with `out` ending. Additionaly there is a file with ending `err` for error message of started process.

The information about each processed file will be stored in a binary file named `taskflow.cach`. Such a file will not be processed again, only if

  • the modified-time of the file changes (you edit or touch the file)

  • the rule is cleaned up

A rule can be cleaned up with:

taskflow -c rulename

or

taskflow --cache rulename

This command creates a file named `.taskflow.rulename.clear`. The next running `taskflow` will clear corresponding entries in `taskflow.cache`. It causes that the rule will be run again.

If you delete the `taskflow.cache` file, all rules will be run again.

If `taskflow` crashes, you find the name of rule and file which causes such crashes in `<filename>.<rulename>.pid`. These pid files will be deleted, if you restart `taskflow`.

If a rule results in an error and a `<filename>.<rulename>.err` is created, the file is not processed again according to the rule, unless the error file is deleted.

If a file is edited or touched and the rule runs again, the `<filename>.<rulename>.out` will be overwritten.

Unless otherwise specified each file is processed 1s after it is last modified. It is possible that a different process is still writing the file but it is pausing more than 1s between writes (for example the file is being downloaded via a slow connection). In this case it is best to download the file with a different name than the name used for the patterm and rename the file to its proper name after the write of the file is completed. This must be handled outside of taskflow. taskflow has no way of knowing when a file is completed or not.

Any change to `taskflow.config` file causes that it is realaoded automatically by running `taskflow`.

taskflow options

-f, --folder    <path>       processing and monitoring directory
-s, --sleep     <seconds>    the time interval between checks for new files
-n, --name      <name>       the current filename, defaults to `$0`
-x, --config    <path>       name of config file ( default:  taskflow.config)
-y, --cache     <path>       name of cache file to use (default: taskflow.cache)
-l, --logfile   <path>       name of logfile (default: /var/tmp/taskflow.log)
-d, --daemonize              daemonizes `taskflow`
-c, --clear     <rulename>   clears a rule without starting the `taskflow`

-h, --help                   display this documentation
-v, --version                display current version

`taskflow.config` syntax

`taskflow.config` consists of a series of rules with the following syntax

rulename: pattern [dt]: command

here:

  • `rulename`: name of the rule (no space)

  • `pattern`: pattern of monitoring files

  • `dt`: time interval (default:1 sec). Only files newer than `dt` seconds will be considered, time units are as expected (see also examples):

    s = seconds, m = minutes, h = hours, d = days, w = weeks

  • `command`: command to execute matching files (see `pattern`), that are created more than `dt` seconds ago and not processed already.

    `&` executes command in background.In case of missing `&`, it blocks the process until its completion.

    `$0` refers to name of matching file.

    `\` used for command continuation for more than one line

    `#` at the start of a line marks that line as comment and ignored

Examples of rules

  • Delete all `*.log` files older than one day

    delete_old_logs: *.log [1d]: rm $0

  • Move all `*.txt` files older than one hour to other directory

    move_old_txt: *.txt [1h]: mv $0 otherfolder/$0

  • Email me when when a new `*.doc` file is created

    email_me_on_new_doc: *.doc: mail -s 'new file: $0' me@example.com < /dev/null

  • Process new `*.dat` files using a Perl script

    process_dat: *.dat: perl process.pl $0

  • Crate a finite state machine for each `*.src` file

    rule1: *.src [1s]: echo > $0.state.1
rule2: *.state.1 [1s]: mv $0 `expr "$0" : '\(.*\).1'`.2
rule3: *.state.2 [1s]: mv $0 `expr "$0" : '\(.*\).2'`.3
rule4: *.state.3 [1s]: rm $0

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ideas for this script are borrowed from a Python script written by 'Massimo Di Pierro'.

SEE ALSO

There are similar solutions in CPAN for managing tasks or workflows. But most of them are heavy and need more sophisticated configuration.

Some of the other modules:

Workflow, Helios

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2012 Farhad Fouladi.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.