/ 
App-VirtualBoxUtils-0.001
/ pause-and-unpause-virtualbox

NAME

pause-and-unpause-virtualbox - Pause and unpause VirtualBox alternately

VERSION

This document describes version 0.001 of pause-and-unpause-virtualbox (from Perl distribution App-VirtualBoxUtils), released on 2024-11-15.

SYNOPSIS

pause-and-unpause-virtualbox --help (or -h, -?)

pause-and-unpause-virtualbox --version (or -v)

pause-and-unpause-virtualbox [--cmndline-pat=re_from_str] [--debug|--log-level=level|--quiet|--trace|--verbose] [--exec-pat=re_from_str] [--fname-pat=re_from_str] [--format=name|--json] [--(no)naked-res] [--page-result[=program]|--view-result[=program]] [(--period=duration)+|--periods-json=json] [--pid-pat=re_from_str] [(--user=unix::uid::exists)+|--users-json=json]

DESCRIPTION

The pause-and-unpause action pause and unpause VirtualBox in an alternate fashion, by default every 5 minutes and 30 seconds. This is a compromise to save CPU time most of the time.

If you run this routine, it will start pausing and unpausing VirtualBox. When you want to use the VirtualBox, press Ctrl-C to interrupt the routine. Then after you are done with the virtual machines and want to pause-and-unpause again, you can re-run this routine.

You can customize the periods via the periods option.

See also the separate pause_virtualbox and the unpause_virtualbox routines.

OPTIONS

* marks required options.

Main options

--period=s@

Pause and unpause times, in seconds.

For example, to pause for 5 minutes, then unpause 10 seconds, then pause for 2 minutes, then unpause for 30 seconds (then repeat the pattern), you can use:

300,10,120,30

Can be specified multiple times.

--periods-json=s

Pause and unpause times, in seconds (JSON-encoded).

See --period.

--user=s@

Kill VirtualBox processes that belong to certain user(s) only.

Can be specified multiple times.

--users-json=s

Kill VirtualBox processes that belong to certain user(s) only (JSON-encoded).

See --user.

Filtering options

--cmndline-pat=s

Filter processes using regex against their cmndline.

If one of the *-pat options are specified, then instead of the default heuristic rules to find the VirtualBox processes, these *-pat options are solely used to determine which processes are the VirtualBox processes.

--exec-pat=s

Filter processes using regex against their exec.

If one of the *-pat options are specified, then instead of the default heuristic rules to find the VirtualBox processes, these *-pat options are solely used to determine which processes are the VirtualBox processes.

--fname-pat=s

Filter processes using regex against their fname.

If one of the *-pat options are specified, then instead of the default heuristic rules to find the VirtualBox processes, these *-pat options are solely used to determine which processes are the VirtualBox processes.

--pid-pat=s

Filter processes using regex against their pid.

If one of the *-pat options are specified, then instead of the default heuristic rules to find the VirtualBox processes, these *-pat options are solely used to determine which processes are the VirtualBox processes.

Logging options

--debug

Shortcut for --log-level=debug.

--log-level=s

Set log level.

By default, these log levels are available (in order of increasing level of importance, from least important to most): trace, debug, info, warn/warning, error, fatal. By default, the level is usually set to warn, which means that log statements with level info and less important levels will not be shown. To increase verbosity, choose info, debug, or trace.

For more details on log level and logging, as well as how new logging levels can be defined or existing ones modified, see Log::ger.

--quiet

Shortcut for --log-level=error.

--trace

Shortcut for --log-level=trace.

--verbose

Shortcut for --log-level=info.

Output options

--format=s

Choose output format, e.g. json, text.

Default value:

undef

Output can be displayed in multiple formats, and a suitable default format is chosen depending on the application and/or whether output destination is interactive terminal (i.e. whether output is piped). This option specifically chooses an output format.

--json

Set output format to json.

--naked-res

When outputing as JSON, strip result envelope.

Default value:

0

By default, when outputing as JSON, the full enveloped result is returned, e.g.:

[200,"OK",[1,2,3],{"func.extra"=>4}]

The reason is so you can get the status (1st element), status message (2nd element) as well as result metadata/extra result (4th element) instead of just the result (3rd element). However, sometimes you want just the result, e.g. when you want to pipe the result for more post-processing. In this case you can use --naked-res so you just get:

[1,2,3]
--page-result

Filter output through a pager.

This option will pipe the output to a specified pager program. If pager program is not specified, a suitable default e.g. less is chosen.

--view-result

View output using a viewer.

This option will first save the output to a temporary file, then open a viewer program to view the temporary file. If a viewer program is not chosen, a suitable default, e.g. the browser, is chosen.

Other options

--help, -h, -?

Display help message and exit.

--version, -v

Display program's version and exit.

COMPLETION

This script has shell tab completion capability with support for several shells.

bash

To activate bash completion for this script, put:

complete -C pause-and-unpause-virtualbox pause-and-unpause-virtualbox

in your bash startup (e.g. ~/.bashrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is recommended, however, that you install modules using cpanm-shcompgen which can activate shell completion for scripts immediately.

tcsh

To activate tcsh completion for this script, put:

complete pause-and-unpause-virtualbox 'p/*/`pause-and-unpause-virtualbox`/'

in your tcsh startup (e.g. ~/.tcshrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is also recommended to install shcompgen (see above).

other shells

For fish and zsh, install shcompgen as described above.

HOMEPAGE

Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-VirtualBoxUtils.

SOURCE

Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-VirtualBoxUtils.

AUTHOR

perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTING

To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.

Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:

% prove -l

If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2024 by perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-VirtualBoxUtils

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.