Utility: DirMon2

[silkshadow]

First, I really like Dirmon2. Just switched from Dirmon 1 and its a nice update, thank you! I do have some questions, please forgive me if there is a manual for this app somewhere that I just couldn't find. Please ignore this post if so and just point me to the manual. Ok here goes:

In Job Manager:

What exactly does queue priority boost do? What does older targets and alphabetical mean? When you say wait until the target is finished/idle what does that actually mean? What is a drive test delay time? What is the ignore box for and how is it used? How does blackout work? What is the format it accepts for time (is it military time, AM/PM, is the format 01:00 or will 01 work, etc)?

In global settings:

What does total resources avalible mean? In clean up, what format does the extenstons have to be in? Will txt,xml,edl,wme work? Does there have to be spaces after the commas?

Thank you!

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by silkshadow

In Job Manager:

What exactly does queue priority boost do?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=383

Originally Posted by silkshadow

What does older targets and alphabetical mean?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=383

Originally Posted by silkshadow

When you say wait until the target is finished/idle what does that actually mean?

Finished means that the show is over and no longer being recorded. Idle means that no one is reading from or writing to it. (In theory )

Originally Posted by silkshadow

What is a drive test delay time?

The time between free space checks to determine if anyone is writing to the disk.

Originally Posted by silkshadow

What is the ignore box for and how is it used?

It allows file name matching to exlude certain files from processing. My traditional example is Nova. Nova doesn't have commercials. Adding an ignore of "Nova" without the quotes prevents anything with Nova in the name from being processed.

Originally Posted by silkshadow

How does blackout work?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=349

Originally Posted by silkshadow

What is the format it accepts for time (is it military time, AM/PM, is the format 01:00 or will 01 work, etc)?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=349

Originally Posted by silkshadow

In global settings:

What does total resources avalible mean?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=383

Originally Posted by silkshadow

In clean up, what format does the extenstons have to be in? Will txt,xml,edl,wme work?

Yes.

Originally Posted by silkshadow

Does there have to be spaces after the commas?

No.

[nyplayer]

Jere_Jones ,

When I check to wait for file or wait untill file is idle... DIRMON gets stuck on a file and will not go past it. If I uncheck all the checks and do my own checking everything works fine.


2006-Aug-08 10:05:14 - Finished: "CreateMPG2MP4" on "E:/sageb/TheOuterLimits-ASpecialEdition-48966-0.mpg"
2006-Aug-08 10:05:24 - Starting: "MPG2MP4" on "D:/sagea/Charmed-MyThreeWitches-39638-0.mpg"
2006-Aug-08 10:10:29 - Attempting to delete: D:\sagea\StarTrekTheNextGeneration-AMatterofTime-40621-0.MPG2MP4

No Files where being watched during this time period. The only plugin I am runnng is the Web Server and the sagexml plugin. Nothing else. BTW one more thing the file above that it got stuck on is a FAV with no autodelete.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

When I check to wait for file or wait untill file is idle... DIRMON gets stuck on a file and will not go past it. If I uncheck all the checks and do my own checking everything works fine.

The "Wait for file to be idle" and the "Wait for file to be finished" get stuck? Do you know what (if anything) had the file open? Grab a copy of Unlocker (http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/) and it will show you what, if any, programs are locking that file.

Does the "Wait until file isn't growing" option work for you?

Jere

[nyplayer]

I downloaded unlocker. I will use the wait till file is not growing and I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks

[nyplayer]

One more thing. Is there any reason why you pass a back slash instead of a forward slash in the files. I cannot process certain commands in my batch file because of it.

see below


C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV>del C:/sagea/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.
mpg
Parameter format not correct - "sagea".

never mind my fault it works if I use quotes around it. Thanks

[jbanera]

Jere, I just installed SA 7.9 and now I continually get Avast AV warning whenever Showanalyzer.exe is running. I know this was a problem with an earlier version and I had to specify an exception in Avast, but this time it doesn't seem to work.. Any help is greatly appreciated, I can't live without my SA!!!

[nyplayer]

Jere,

I tried everyone of the file detection methods each failed the same way. When the file is being created It Creates a job with a PID of 0 and just sits there even after the file completes. Nothing else runs. I waited an hr after the file completed and nothing ran.

PS I used unlocker and the files were not locked

2006-Aug-09 14:04:23 - Starting overseer
2006-Aug-09 14:04:33 - Starting: "mpg2avi" on "F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg"

[Jere_Jones]

nyplayer,

I think we may be talking about different things. The "wait until file..." are for the target file. For example, when you are recording Nova (my favorite example), SageTV is continually writting to Nova.mpg (or some variant). If you want DM2 to wait until the file is finished recording, then the "Wait until file..." options are for that. There are three options because no one method works on all setups.

Judging by your last post, it sounds like DM2 can't tell when a job ends. Is DM2 running the job you want? It looks like you want to run a conversion. Does the file get converted? If so, then it looks like DM2 doesn't notice the job ending. If not, it looks like a failure to get it started and then since it didn't start, it will never end.

Can you share your dirmon.ini?

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

jbanera,

I responded to your question in the ShowAnalyzer thread here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=850

Thanks,
Jere

[silkshadow]

Thanks for those answers, Jere!

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by silkshadow

Thanks for those answers, Jere!

No problem. Did all that make sense?

Jere

[nyplayer]

Jere,

This is what I did this morning.

1. I started Dirmon2 with INI below (more info after INI scroll down)

[Global]
Polling Time = 600
Available Resources = 100

[Service]
Start Automatically = 0
Run as Local System = 1
Allow Interaction With Desktop = 1
Run as User = 0
User Name =
User Password =

[Job Description 1]
Name = mpg2avi
Processor = C:/encode.bat
Targets Are Paths = 0
Targets Are Extensions = 1
Command Line Options =
Must Exist 1 = MPG2AVI
Must Exist Logic = OR
Must Exist 2 =
Must And Or Must Not Exist Logic = AND
Must Not Exist 1 = avi
Must Not Exist Logic = OR
Must Not Exist 2 =
Directory 1 = F:/sageb
Target 1 = mpg
Resources Needed = 100
Timeout Enabled = 0
Timeout = -1
Priority Boost Due To Job Description = 0
Priority Boost Due To Age = 1
Priority Boost Due To Name = 0
Process Subdirectories = 1
Wait Until File Is Finished = 0
Wait Until File Is Idle = 1
Wait Until File Is Not Growing = 0
Wait Until File Is Not Growing Time = 1
Wait Until Drive Is Idle = 0
Wait Until Drive Is Idle Time = 2
Hide Console = 1
Blackout Enabled = 0
Blackout Start Time = 0
Blackout End Time = 0

2. I have a file F:\sageb\AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg

3. I started Playing the file in powerdvd. This way file is not Idle..

4. I create a trigger F:\sageb\AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.MPG2AVI

5. After a while I looked at Activity log while file is playin and active cvs
2006-Aug-10 06:02:22 - Starting overseer
2006-Aug-10 06:12:24 - Starting: "mpg2avi" on "F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg"

100,<--,Number of resources currently in use
0,mpg2avi,F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg

6.file is still playing. No Job is running.

7. I stop playing file. Check unlocker no handles.

8. Wait Wait Wait... Nothing happens

9. Look at activity log and avtive cvs
2006-Aug-10 06:02:22 - Starting overseer
2006-Aug-10 06:12:24 - Starting: "mpg2avi" on "F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg"

100,<--,Number of resources currently in use
0,mpg2avi,F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg

10. I finally stop and start Dirmon2 and my batch file takes off.

2006-Aug-10 06:02:22 - Starting overseer
2006-Aug-10 06:12:24 - Starting: "mpg2avi" on "F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg"
2006-Aug-10 06:44:51 - Starting overseer
2006-Aug-10 06:44:51 - Starting: "mpg2avi" on "F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg"

100,<--,Number of resources currently in use
2236,mpg2avi,F:/sageb/AngelasEyes-EyesoftheFather-18287-0.mpg

[silkshadow]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

No problem. Did all that make sense?

Jere

Yup, exactly what I as looking for, thanks!

[ekiwi]

until this week

every time i try to start it i get the error displayed in the attached file

i uninstalled it installed an older version mucked around alot and suddenly it started to work again.

re inputed the jobs and it worked well for 2 days now it is back again

i have virus/spy/malware checked and it is all ok

i notice i got some updates from ms this week

does dirmon depend on anything else that i could reload

UPDATE

the error goes away when i kill explorer and restart. The dirmon gui will then open and run without issue but the problem reappears some period shorter than 4 hours later. when it wont run nothing else seems to fail.

Anyone have any ideas short of reinstalling my pc

[bcjenkins]

Dirmon is hanging on to shows that SA has finished scanning. Mostly noticed with partial viewings, the PID is always 0. I have set it to kill after 6 hours, I think, but that doesn't seem to help. Is anyone else seeing this?

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Dirmon is hanging on to shows that SA has finished scanning. Mostly noticed with partial viewings, the PID is always 0. I have set it to kill after 6 hours, I think, but that doesn't seem to help. Is anyone else seeing this?

Nope, it must be something that keeps triggering DM to restart SA.

I've sometimes found that I have to stop the service, uninstall, save, get out, come back in, install the service, start, save, and then close out. Sometimes this will fix issues I've had in the past.

Otherwise, you might need to check your trigger settings, or automatic file cleanup, to make sure it's not triggering when it's not supposed to, or that it's not cleaning up a file it's not supposed to.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Nope, it must be something that keeps triggering DM to restart SA.

I've sometimes found that I have to stop the service, uninstall, save, get out, come back in, install the service, start, save, and then close out. Sometimes this will fix issues I've had in the past.

Otherwise, you might need to check your trigger settings, or automatic file cleanup, to make sure it's not triggering when it's not supposed to, or that it's not cleaning up a file it's not supposed to.

Thanks for the reply. Triggered events seem to be handled appropriately. It looks/smells more like DM isn't noticing the termination of SA and loses track of the process exiting. Since it can no longer find the original PID, it assigns it to PID 0, which is the System Idle Process. This only seems to be happening on shows where I was flipping channels and the "temporary" recordings are set to delete.

B

[Wirenut]

I've had the same thing happen with Comskip. When flipping through channels, a show must not get deleted by Sage fast enough on exit, and Dirmon2 triggers Comskip.... then.... I think.... Sage deletes the file that comskip is operating on and the current job "hangs." Then I see a PID of 0 and maybe a couple of other jobs in the queue waiting on the "hung" job.

Wirenut

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Wirenut

I've had the same thing happen with Comskip. When flipping through channels, a show must not get deleted by Sage fast enough on exit, and Dirmon2 triggers Comskip.... then.... I think.... Sage deletes the file that comskip is operating on and the current job "hangs." Then I see a PID of 0 and maybe a couple of other jobs in the queue waiting on the "hung" job.

Wirenut

Same here ... A fix for this would be great

Dirk