Develop Reference

Run script for send in-game Terraria server commands

In the past week I install a Terraria 1.3.5.3 server into an Ubuntu v18.04 OS, for playing online with friends. This server should be powered on 24/7, without any GUI, only been accessed by SSH on internal LAN.
My friends ask me if there is a way for them to control the server, e.g. send a message, via internal in-game chat, so I thought use a special character ($) in front of the desired command ('$say something' or '$save', for instance) and a python program, that read the terminal output via pipe, interpreter the command and send it back with a bash command.
I follow these instructions to install the server:
https://www.linode.com/docs/game-servers/host-a-terraria-server-on-your-linode
And config my router to forward a dedicated port to the terraria server.
All is working fine, but I really struggle to make python send a command via "terrariad" bash script, described in the link above.
Here is a code used to send a command, in python:
import subprocess
subprocess.Popen("terrariad save", shell=True)
This works fine, but if I try to input a string with space:
import subprocess
subprocess.Popen("terrariad \"say something\"", shell=True)
it stop the command in the space char, output this on the terminal:
: say
Instead of the desired:
: say something
<Server>something
What could I do to solve this problem?
I tried so much things but I get the same result.
P.S. If I send the command manually in the ssh putty terminal, it works!
Edit 1:
I abandoned the python solution, by now I'll try it with bash instead, seem to be more logic to do this way.
Edit 2:
I found the "terrariad" script expect just one argument, but the Popen is splitting my argument into two no matter the method I use, as my input string has one space char in the middle. Like this:
Expected:
terrariad "say\ something"
$1 = "say something"
But I get this of python Popen:
subprocess.Popen("terrariad \"say something\"", shell=True)
$1 = "say
$2 = something"
No matter i try to list it:
subprocess.Popen(["terrariad", "say something"])
$1 = "say
$2 = something"
Or use \ quote before the space char, It always split variables if it reach a space char.
Edit 3:
Looking in the bash script I could understand what is going on when I send a command... Basically it use the command "stuff", from the screen program, to send characters to the terraria screen session:
screen -S terraria -X stuff $send
$send is a printf command:
send="`printf \"$*\r\"`"
And it seems to me that if I run the bash file from Python, it has a different result than running from the command line. How this is possible? Is this a bug or bad implementation of the function?
Thanks!

I finally come with a solution to this, using pipes instead of the Popen solution.
It seems to me that Popen isn't the best solution to run bash scripts, as described in How to do multiple arguments with Python Popen?, the link that SiHa send in the comments (Thanks!):
"However, using Python as a wrapper for many system commands is not really a good idea. At the very least, you should be breaking up your commands into separate Popens, so that non-zero exits can be handled adequately. In reality, this script seems like it'd be much better suited as a shell script.".
So I came with the solution, using a fifo file:
First, create a fifo to be use as a pipe, in the desired directory (for instance, /samba/terraria/config):
mkfifo cmdOutput
*/samba/terraria - this is the directory I create in order to easily edit the scripts, save and load maps to the server using another computer, that are shared with samba (https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-and-configure-samba-on-ubuntu-18-04/)
Then I create a python script to read from the screen output and then write to a pipe file (I know, probably there is other ways to this):
import shlex, os
outputFile = os.open("/samba/terraria/config/cmdOutput", os.O_WRONLY )
print("python script has started!")
while 1:
line = input()
print(line)
cmdPosition = line.find("&")
if( cmdPosition != -1 ):
cmd = slice(cmdPosition+1,len(line))
cmdText = line[cmd]
os.write(outputFile, bytes( cmdText + "\r\r", 'utf-8'))
os.write(outputFile, bytes("say Command executed!!!\r\r", 'utf-8'))
Then I edit the terraria.service file to call this script, piped from terrariaServer, and redirect the errors to another file:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/screen -dmS terraria /bin/bash -c "/opt/terraria/TerrariaServer.bin.x86_64 -config /samba/terraria/config/serverconfig.txt < /samba/terraria/config/cmdOutput 2>/samba/terraria/config/errorLog.txt | python3 /samba/terraria/scripts/allowCommands.py"
*/samba/terraria/scripts/allowCommands.py - where my script is.
**/samba/terraria/config/errorLog.txt - save Log of errors in a file.
Now I can send commands, like 'noon' or 'dawn' so I can change the in-game time, save world and backup it with samba server before boss fights, do another stuff if I have some time XD, and have the terminal showing what is going on with the server.

Node-red daemon

I am new to using Node-red and the raspberry pi. I have a python script that would like to run from node-red and receive the mag.payload. I cannot figure the correct command in the daemon node to start the python script. Any help is appreciated.
Current Python script:
import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_mprls
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
try:
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
except RuntimeError:
print("Error importing RPi.GPIO! This is probably because you need
superuser privileges.")
i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)
mpr = adafruit_mprls.MPRLS(i2c, psi_min=0, psi_max=25)
"""
import digitalio
reset = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D5)
eoc = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D6)
mpr = adafruit_mprls.MPRLS(i2c, eoc_pin=eoc, reset_pin=reset,
psi_min=0, psi_max=25)
"""
while True:
print((mpr.pressure,))
time.sleep(1)
The python script is stored at home/pi/Document/pressure.py
I am not sure what the command and arguments should be in the daemon node of node-red. I have tried in
command: usr/bin/python
arguments: home/pi/Documents/prressure.py

Firstly paths need to start with a leading /
So you need to put /usr/bin/python into the command and /home/pi/Documents/prressure.py into the arguments.
The only problem is the script implies it needs to be run as root. You should NOT run Node-RED as root unless you REALLY REALLY know what you are doing. The other option would be to run with sudo in which case you would put /usr/bin/sudo in the command and /usr/bin/python /home/pi/Documents/prressure.py in the arguments. This will only work on a raspberry pi because the pi user is normally allowed to use sudo without a password.

If you want to run a program/script/command from node-red i recommend you checkout Exec Node
Runs a system command and returns its output.
The node can be configured to either wait until the command completes, or to send its output as the command generates it.
The command that is run can be configured in the node or provided by the received message.
For more information check the info tab of the node in Node-Red

Python Serial() not etablishing on start up

I've made a python script to read information from Serial port. I want this script to run at the boot of my ubuntu.
I've made my python file executable, and added a lign to the crontab : #reboot sleep 10s; python /home/MyUser/Documents/MyScript.py &
The script is indeed started when i'm booting but it's seems like the specific line ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyACM0', 9600) won't work. Indeed, if I try to execute something before, it will work, but not after.
I can't figure out why it's not working. When i'm executing my script from the terminal, it does work without problem.
I believe it may be because of the fact that the serial port may not be ready yet when the script start but even when adding a longer sleep before the script start, it doesn't work. I'm running out of ideas and I really need your help.
Here is my python script :
#!/usr/bin/env python
import serial
import subprocess
import os
import time
ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyACM0', 9600)
os.system('export DISPLAY=:0 && xset dpms force off &') #this line won't work, that's why I know the problem is coming from the serial beginning.
time.sleep(60)
urgency = 0
diffusion = 0
while 1 :
line = ser.readline().strip()
if line == "start":
#do something
else
#do something else

Python: Spawn New Minimized Shell

I am attempting to to launch a python script from within another python script, but in a minimized console, then return control to the original shell.
I am able to open the required script in a new shell below, but it's not minimized:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
import subprocess
pyTivoPath="c:\pyTivo\pyTivo.py"
print "Testing: Open New Console"
subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, pyTivoPath], creationflags = subprocess.CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE)
print
raw_input("Press Enter to continue...")
Further, I will need to be able to later remotely KILL this shell from the original script, so I suspect I'll need to be explicit in naming the new process. Correct?
Looking for pointers, please. Thanks!
Note: python27 is mandatory for this application. Eventually will also need to work on Mac and Linux.

Do you need to have the other console open? If you now the commands to be sent, then I'd recommend using Popen.communicate(input="Shell commands") and it will automate the process for you.
So you could write something along the lines of:
# Commands to pass into subprocess (each command is separated by a newline)
commands = (
"command1\n" +
"command2\n"
)
# Your process
py_process = subprocess.Popen(*yourprocess_here*, stdin=PIPE, shell=True)
# Feed process the needed input
py_process.communicate(input=commands)
# Terminate when finished
py_process.terminate()
The code above will execute the process you specify and even send commands but it won't open a new console.

Python script running in one system will perform the result in another system

I am trying to write a python script which when executes will open a Maya file in another computer and creates its playblast there. Is this possible? Also I would like to add one more thing that the systems I use are all Windows. Thanks

Yes it is possible, i do this all the time on several computers. First you need to access the computer. This has been answered. Then call maya from within your shell as follows:
maya -command myblast -file filetoblast.ma
you will need myblast.mel somewhere in your script path
myblast.mel:
global proc myblast(){
playblast -widthHeight 1920 1080 -percent 100
-fmt "movie" -v 0 -f (`file -q -sn`+".avi");
evalDeferred("quit -f");
}
Configure what you need in this file such as shading options etc. Please note calling Maya GUI uses up one license and playblast need that GUI (you could shave some seconds by not doing the default GUI)

In order to execute something on a remote computer, you've got to have some sort of service running there.
If it is a linux machine, you can simply connect via ssh and run the commands. In python you can do that using paramiko:
import paramiko
ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh.connect('127.0.0.1', username='foo', password='bar')
stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command("echo hello")
Otherwise, you can use a python service, but you'll have to run it beforehand.
You can use Celery as previously mentioned, or ZeroMQ, or more simply use RPyC:
Simply run the rpyc_classic.py script on the target machine, and then you can run python on it:
conn = rpyc.classic.connect("my_remote_server")
conn.modules.os.system('echo foo')
Alternatively, you can create a custom RPyC service (see documentation).
A final option is using an HTTP server like previously suggested. This may be easiest if you don't want to start installing everything. You can use Bottle which is a simple HTTP framework in python:
Server-side:
from bottle import route, run
#route('/run_maya')
def index(name):
# Do whatever
return 'kay'
run(host='localhost', port=8080)
Client-side:
import requests
requests.get('http://remote_server/run_maya')

One last option for cheap rpc is to run maya.standalone from a a maya python ("mayapy", usually installed next to the maya binary). The standalone is going to be running inside a regular python script so it can uses any of the remote procedure tricks in KimiNewts answer.
You can also create your own mini-server using basic python. The server could use the maya command port, or a wsgi server using the built in wsgiref module. Here is an example which uses wsgiref running inside a standalone to control a maya remotely via http.

We've been dealing with the same issue at work. We're using Celery as the task manager and have code like this inside of the Celery task for playblasting on the worker machines. This is done on Windows and uses Python.
import os
import subprocess
import tempfile
import textwrap
MAYA_EXE = r"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2016\bin\maya.exe"
def function_name():
# the python code you want to execute in Maya
pycmd = textwrap.dedent('''
import pymel.core as pm
# Your code here to load your scene and playblast
# new scene to remove quicktimeShim which sometimes fails to quit
# with Maya and prevents the subprocess from exiting
pm.newFile(force=True)
# wait a second to make sure quicktimeShim is gone
time.sleep(1)
pm.evalDeferred("pm.mel.quit('-f')")
''')
# write the code into a temporary file
tempscript = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False, dir=temp_dir)
tempscript.write(pycmd)
tempscript.close()
# build a subprocess command
melcmd = 'python "execfile(\'%s\')";' % tempscript.name.replace('\\', '/')
cmd = [MAYA_EXE, '-command', melcmd]
# launch the subprocess
proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
proc.wait()
# when the process is done, remove the temporary script
try:
os.remove(tempscript.name)
except WindowsError:
pass