Simple indicator for rslsync and XFCE

Update I added another script which will run rslsync when the taskbar icon is clicked.

I’m running rslsync on all my computers and I’m constantly checking if it was started to not loose any chances to sync up my documents. But this gets boring quick, so I decided that I want a simple red/green indicator on my XFCE taskbar.

Luckily there is a simple plugin called xfce4-genmon-plugin which can be used to execute a shell script. The output of the script can be customized to display text, icons and tooltips. So I created a simple script to display a red icon when my sync process is not running and a green icon when the process is running. Here it is:

#!/bin/bash
SCRIPT=$HOME/bin/run-sync.sh
declare -i running
running=$(pidof rslsync)
if [ $running -ne 0 ]; then
	echo "<img>/usr/share/icons/Vivacious-Colors-Dark/status/24/stock_dialog-info.png</img><tool>Sync is running with PID $running</tool>"
else
	echo "<img>/usr/share/icons/Vivacious-Colors-Dark/status/24/stock_dialog-error.png</img><tool>Sync is not running</tool><click>$SCRIPT</click>"
fi

The script checks if the PID of a process called rslsync is something other than zero. I also use 2 icons from my current icon set, Vibrancy Colors Dark. In case I forget what this icon is about, I also add a simple tooltip which includes the process ID.

Update I added the tag <click>...</click> to the check script which references another script:

#!/bin/bash
SYNC_HOME=$HOME/bin/btsync
SYNC_CONFIG=$SYNC_HOME/btsync.config
if [ "$(pidof rslsync)" != "0" ]; then
	$SYNC_HOME/rslsync --config "$SYNC_CONFIG"
else
	echo Sync already running.
fi

This second script will start rslsync if it is not already running. So if the taskbar icon is red, I can just click it and my sync process wil be started. Now I can just check the taskbar when I start my computer and be sure that everything is syncing as it should.