Forum Discussion
Spot the rookie error
Europe changed time at 2am this weekend (we do the same next weekend). But a PHP script routine that I run on a US server to detect time changes in London was broke. I've already fixed it, but who el...
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In the line: if ($time_adj = 3600) {
= (single '=') just assigns 3600 to $time_adj and the 'if' always evaluates true because 3600 is greater than 0, so it's always BST (D'oh). It should have been:
== (double '=') which actually tests whether $time_adj is equal to 3600 (3600 sec = 1 hr), meaning the difference between current London time and UTC is 1 hr, or BST. Otherwise the difference would be zero, or UTC/GMT.
Stupid thing gets me every time, just like remembering to end a line with a semi-colon.
Well I had the right line.
I knew that the single '=' was the problem but wasn't sure how to implement the test.
Like I said, "it was just for fun" and I came close.
I've been fighting with a property list (plist) to make a Mac update during bonus hours.
There's been several ppl who have asked how.
I can't seem to find the 'bug' and it may be OS version specific. So far idk.
It's something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>YourMac.name.here.SftwrUpdt</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>softwareupdate</string>
<string>--Download</string>
<string>--All</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>02</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>00</integer>
</dict>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Users/donsjgm/Library/Application\ Support</string>
<key>ProductPaths</key>
<string>/Users/donsjgm/Library/Application\ Support</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Interesting. Is it kicking off and giving an error, or just not kicking off?
If it's kicking off, it might need to be sudo'd.
Also, not sure what the '--schedule' switch really does, but it might have something to do with it.
Looking at Creating Launch Daemons and Agents:
I'm guessing you've seen the example for StartCalendarInterval. I'm also assuming the file is in the right folder (one of ~/Library/, /Library/, or /System/Library/; in either the LaunchDaemons or LaunchAgents folders) with the right permissions.
It's not kicking off, it reports "Invalid property list".
it's in /Library/LaunchDaemons and should start with sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/YourMac.name.here.SftwrUpdt.plist
I finally got tired and set it aside for now.
I've scrutinized it for syntax errors and searched for the reason that it's invalid.
Different versions of OS X use different file locations and the finished (working) plist might be version dependant, idk.
the "softwareupdate" command works from terminal so thus far I just haven't figured it out.
I'll have to go back and study Creating Launch Daemons and Agents to see what I might be missing.
I was going to use cron but since it's depreciated and I wanted to help as many ppl as possible I went with Launchd.
Just a work in progress - I thought I would share with you.
Don :)
Hmm... I copied/pasted into a text file, then opened it in Xcode and it seemed to read like a proper plist, so the 'invalid' thing is very strange.
Sounds like my kind of challenge. I'll kick it around as well to see what I can get working. Maybe together we can solve this.
I agree that this can ultimately be very helpful to other Mac users that want to automate updates in the Bonus period - or for anyone that just wants to do things overnight for that matter.
I can even create a frontend in Xcode that creates/positions the file with the desired softwareupdate options once we figure out the what and where.
