epgsearch(5)               Epgsearch Version 0.9.24               epgsearch(5)



NAME
       epgsearch - Searchtimer and replacement of the VDR program menu

OVERVIEW
       Since the README get bigger and bigger this man page shall be used to
       explain some things in detail. So it’s not really a manual, but an
       extended README.

CONTENT
        1.  Using variables in the directory entry of a search timer
        2.  The format of epgsearch.conf
        3.  Description of the search process
        4.  How do Search Timers work?
        5.  How to trigger a search timer update?
        6.  The sources of the 'Select directory' menu
        7.  Language dependent commands for EPG
        8.  Usage from other plugins or scripts
        9.  SVDRP interface
        10. Customizing the EPG menus
        11. Working with the timer conflict menu
        12. User defined variables
        13. Email notifications
        14. The conf.d subdirectory

1. Using variables in the directory entry of a search timer
       If you are using extended EPG information, you can use variables as
       part of a directory entry of a search timer. These variables always
       have the form ’%variable%’. The name of a variable corresponds with the
       internal name of an extended EPG info, as specified in the file
       epgsearchcats.conf (samples can be found in subdirectory ’conf’).
       Example:

        1|Category|Kategorie|Information,Kinder,Musik,Serie,Show,Spielfilm,Sport|3

       The category with ID 1 has the internal name ’Category’. So you could
       use it with ’%Category%’. The names are not case sensitive. Sample
       directory entries could look like this:

        My Movies~%Category%
        Childrens Movies~%category%
        %CATEGORY%~%genre%

       There are also three other variables: %Title%, %Subtitle% and %Chan‐
       nel%.  If you don’t use %Title%, the title is always automatically
       appended to the directory entry, when a timer will be created. If you
       set ’serial recording’ to ’yes’ in your search timer then also the sub‐
       title will be automatically appended. So the directory entry

        %Category%~%Genre%~%Title%~%Subtitle%

       is the same as

        %Category%~%Genre%
        (with 'serial recording' set to 'yes').

       The %Channel% variable gets replaced with the name of the channel.

       Attention: Automatically appending title and subtitle will not be done,
       if you use the variables %Title% or %Subtitle% in the directory entry.
       This allows to form directory entries like this one:

        %Category%~%Genre%~%Title%~%Episode%~%Subtitle%

       There is also another variable %search.query% that will be replaced
       with the query of the search timer.

       See also "epgsearchuservars.conf(5)".

2. The format of epgsearch.conf
       Due to some new features there was a change in the format. The format
       is now signed with a comment in the first line. The field delimiter is
       ’:’:

         1 - unique search timer id
         2 - the search term
         3 - use time? 0/1
         4 - start time in HHMM
         5 - stop time in HHMM
         6 - use channel? 0 = no,  1 = Interval, 2 = Channel group, 3 = FTA only
         7 - if 'use channel' = 1 then channel id[|channel id] in vdr format,
             one entry or min/max entry separated with |, if 'use channel' = 2
             then the channel group name
         8 - match case? 0/1
         9 - search mode:
              0 - the whole term must appear as substring
              1 - all single terms (delimiters are blank,',', ';', '|' or '~')
                 must exist as substrings.
              2 - at least one term (delimiters are blank, ',', ';', '|' or '~')
                  must exist as substring.
              3 - matches exactly
              4 - regular expression
              5 - fuzzy searching (specify tolerance in parameter 42, not available
                  for EPG categories)
        10 - use title? 0/1
        11 - use subtitle? 0/1
        12 - use description? 0/1
        13 - use duration? 0/1
        14 - min duration in minutes
        15 - max duration in minutes
        16 - use as search timer? 0/1/2 (with 2 one can specify time margins in
             parameter 48/49 where the search timer is active)
        17 - use day of week? 0/1
        18 - day of week (0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday...;
             -1 Sunday, -2 Monday, -4 Tuesday, ...; -7 Sun, Mon, Tue)
        19 - use series recording? 0/1
        20 - directory for recording
        21 - priority of recording
        22 - lifetime of recording
        23 - time margin for start in minutes
        24 - time margin for stop in minutes
        25 - use VPS? 0/1
        26 - action:
              0 = create a timer
              1 = announce only via OSD (no timer)
              2 = switch only (no timer)
        27 - use extended EPG info? 0/1
        28 - extended EPG info values. This entry has the following format
             (delimiter is '|' for each category, '#' separates id and value):
             1 - the id of the extended EPG info category as specified in
                 epgsearchcats.conf
             2 - the value of the extended EPG info category
                 (a ':' will be translated to "!^colon^!", e.g. in "16:9")
        29 - avoid repeats? 0/1
        30 - allowed repeats
        31 - compare title when testing for a repeat? 0/1
        32 - compare subtitle when testing for a repeat? 0/1
        33 - compare description when testing for a repeat? 0/1
        34 - compare extended EPG info when testing for a repeat?
             This entry is a bit field of the category IDs.
        35 - accepts repeats only within x days
        36 - delete a recording automatically after x days
        37 - but keep this number of recordings anyway
        38 - minutes before switch (if action = 2)
        39 - pause if x recordings already exist
        40 - blacklist usage mode (0 none, 1 selection, 2 all)
        41 - selected blacklist IDs separated with '|'
        42 - fuzzy tolerance value for fuzzy searching
        43 - use this search in favorites menu (0 no, 1 yes)
        44 - number of the search menu template to use (only available if multiple
             search result templates are defined in epgsearchmenu.conf)
        45 - auto deletion mode (0 don't delete search timer, 1 delete after given
             count of recordings, 2 delete after given days after first recording)
        46 - count of recordings after which to delete the search timer
        47 - count of days after the first recording after which to delete the search
             timer
        48 - first day where the search timer is active (see parameter 16)
        49 - last day where the search timer is active (see parameter 16)
        50 - ignore missing EPG categories? 0/1
        51 - unmute sound if off when used as switch timer

       A ’:’ in the search term or the directory entry will be translated in a
       ’|’. If a ’|’ exists in the search term, e.g. when using regular
       expressions, it will be translated to "!^pipe^!" (I know it’s ugly ;-))

       See also "epgsearch.conf(5)".

3. Description of the search process
       First, for each broadcasting a search text divided by ’~’ is created,
       depending on the settings of ’Use title’, ’Use subtitle’ and ’Use
       description’:

        title~subtitle~description

       If "Match case" is not set, the search text and the search term are
       transformed to lower case.  Now depending on the search mode, the
       search term will be looked up in the search text:

       - ’Phrase’ matches
           if the search term is found anywhere in the search text.

       - ’at least one word’, ’all words’
           first the search term will be split in single words. Delimiters are
           a blank and the characters ’,’ ’;’ ’|’ ’~’.

           Then we check if at least one or all words appear in the search
           text.

       - ’match exactly’
           matches if search term and search text are identical.

       - ’regular expression’
           the search is done with a regular expression. You don’t need a
           leading and trailing ’/’ in your search term.  Two standards of
           regular expression are supported: extended POSIX and Perl compati‐
           ble regular expressions (PCRE) (see INSTALL).

       If the search was successful until now, the other criterions (start
       time, duration, week day) are checked.

4. How do Search Timers work?
       With each update, the plugin searches for new matches of your search
       timers. If a new match is found then a new timer is created. For serial
       recordings, the subtitle is appended to the recording directory. Many
       providers deliver the subtitle just 1-2 days before the event. The
       plugin uses then a date/time string for the subtitle, but replaces this
       one later if the subtitle is present.

       Start and end times of a broadcasting often vary a little bit. To avoid
       getting many different timers for the same event, the plugin checks
       before adding a new timer, if there is one, that has start and end
       times which only differ by a maximum of 10 minutes (or the events dura‐
       tion if this is less then 10 minutes). If so, the present timer is mod‐
       ified, else a new timer is created. If the timer was set to inactive
       there will be no update. Also manually corrected priority or lifetime
       will not be changed when updating.

       If you have set ’Announce only (no timer)’ to yes, no timer is created.
       Instead you get an OSD message about the event. This message is dis‐
       played at each scan, but only if there is no timer for the event.

5. How to trigger a search timer update?
       the update of search timers runs in its own thread. There are several
       ways to trigger it:

       - automatically
           after VDR starts there is always an update (after a few seconds).
           After this, the setup option ’Update interval’ tells epgsearch when
           the next update should be done repeatedly (in minutes).

       - manually extern
           the thread observes the file ’.epgsearchupdate’ in the plugins con‐
           fig directory. When you

            touch /path_to_file/.epgsearchupdate

           this will also trigger an update. So this is a simple solution to
           make an update e.g. by a script.

       - manually intern
           calling actions or pressing ’3’ in the menu of searches asks also
           for an update.

       - from other plugins

       there’s a service ’Epgsearch-updatesearchtimers-v1.0’ that can be used
       with the service interface of VDR from other plugins with the option to
       inform via OSD when the update has finished

6. The sources of the ’Select directory’ menu
       This menu displays directories, that can be used for search timers or
       ordinary timers. The items displayed are read from the following
       sources:

          * current recording directories
          * current timer directories
          * directories used in search timers
          * directories specified in F<epgsearchdirs.conf>,
            see C<epgsearchdirs.con(5)>

       The menu merges theses directories and displays only distinct directo‐
       ries. With key ’yellow’ one can change the depth of the directories
       shown. If there are items, that contain category variables like
       ’%genre%’, these entries are always shown before any other directories.
       They are also not level dependent, but are always shown with their full
       directory.

       If this menu is called from the timer edit menu and an item is selected
       that contains the variables "%title%" or "%subtitle" then the ’file’
       item of the timer gets cleared, since title or subtitle already exist
       in the ’directory’ item.  This list can also be accessed via the SVDRP
       command ’LSRD’.

7. Language dependent commands for EPG
       If you like to have a language dependent list of commands simply trans‐
       late your present epgsearchcmds.conf to your preferred OSD language and
       store it with the filename epgsearchcmds-XXX.conf, where XXX is the
       language code from i18n.c:

         { "eng,dos",
           "deu,ger",
           "slv",
           "ita",
           "dut,nla,nld",
           "por",
           "fra,fre",
           "nor",
           "fin,smi",
           "pol",
           "esl,spa",
           "ell,gre",
           "sve,swe",
           "rom,rum",
           "hun",
           "cat,cln",
           "rus",
           "hrv",
           "est",
           "dan",
         }

       If there are more codes for one language (e.g. "deu,ger") choose one of
       them. If there is no language dependent file, epgsearch loads the file
       epgsearchcmds.conf.

       See also "epgsearchcmds.conf(5)".

8. Usage from other plugins or scripts
       Searching the EPG and other functionality can be used by other plugins
       or scripts. There are two approaches:

       8.1. File-based (intended for use in scripts)

       Therefore simply create the file ’.epgsearchrc’ in the plugins config
       directory with the following lines in it:

        Search=your search term
        Searchmode=x  // 0=phrase, 1=and, 2=or, 3=regular expression
        ChannelNr=x   // add this line, to search on a specific channel
        UseTitle=x    // 1(default) or 0
        UseSubtitle=x // 1(default) or 0
        UseDescr=x    // 1(default) or 0

       Then call Epgsearch via svdrpsend.pl (you must have assigned a key to
       it), e.g.

        svdrpsend.pl HITK green

       At startup Epgsearch will look for this file and give you the search
       results for your search, if it exists. After that the file is removed.

       A sample script recrep.sh, that searches for the repeats of a recording
       exists in the scripts subdirectory of Epgsearch.

       8.2. via Plugin-Interface (intended for use in plugins)

       A plugin can directly call two functions of epgsearch with only some
       lines of source code:

        - searching the EPG for some criteria and display the result list
        - extended timer edit menu

       I have added a quick and dirty dummy plugin (source/vdr-epgsearch‐
       client-0.0.1.tgz), that demonstrates the usage.

9. SVDRP interface
       epgsearch implements a SVDRP interface, that can be accessed for exam‐
       ple like this

        svdrpsend.pl PLUG epgsearch LSTS

       the following commands are available:

       search management:

        * 'LSTS [ID]' to list all searches, or the one with the passed ID
          (format is the same as epgsearch.conf)
        * 'NEWS <settings>' to add a new search
          REMARK: the value of element ID is ignored. epgsearch will always
          assign the next free ID
        * 'DELS <ID>' to delete the search with ID
        * 'EDIS <settings>' to modify an existing search
        * 'UPDS [OSD]' to update the search timers. Passing the optional keyword
          'OSD' pops up an OSD message after the update has finished.
        * 'MODS ID ON|OFF' turns on/off the option 'Use as search timer'.
        * 'UPDD' to reload the file epgsearchdone.data, e.g. after an
          external tool has modified it.
        * 'SETS <ON|OFF>' to temporarily activate or cancel the search timer background
          thread.
        * 'FIND <settings>' for searching the EPG
          input is the same as with 'NEWS'. output is a list of found events formatted
          as 'NEWT' lines. So they can be immediately used to create a new timer for
          an event.
        * 'QRYS < ID(s) >' to get the results for a search with the given
          ID. Multiple IDs can also be passed and have to be separated with '|'.
          The results are formatted like this:

          search ID    : // the ID of the corresponding search timer
          event ID     : // VDR event ID
          title        : // event title, any ':' will be converted to '|'
          episode name : // event short text, any ':' will be converted to '|'
          event start  : // event start in seconds since 1970-01-01
          event stop   : // event stop in seconds since 1970-01-01
          channel      : // channel ID in VDR's internal representation (e.g. 'S19.2E-1-1101-28106')
          timer start  : // timer start in seconds since 1970-01-01 (only valid if timer flag is > 0)
          timer stop   : // timer stop in seconds since 1970-01-01 (only valid if timer flag is > 0)
          timer file   : // timer file (only valid if timer flag is > 0)
          timer flag   : // 0 = no timer needed, 1 = has timer, 2 timer planned for next update)
        * 'QRYS <settings>' to get the results for a search with the given search
          settings.
        * 'QRYF [hours]' to get the results for the favorites menu, see QRYS for
          result format. The optional parameter specifies the number of hours to
          evaluate and defaults to 24h.

       channel group management:

        * 'LSTC [channel group name]'
          list all channel groups or if given the one with name 'group name'
        * 'NEWC <channel group settings>'
          create a new channel group, format as in epgsearchchangrps.conf
        * 'EDIC <channel group settings>'
          modify an existing channel group, format as in epgsearchchangrps.conf
        * 'DELC <channel group name>'
          delete an existing channel group
        * 'RENC <old channel group name|new channel group name>'
          rename an existing channel group

       blacklist management:

        * 'LSTB [ID]' to list all blacklists, or the one with the passed ID
          (format is the same as epgsearchblacklists.conf)
        * 'NEWB <settings>' to add a new blacklist
          REMARK: the value of element ID is ignored. epgsearch will always
          assign the next free ID
        * 'DELB <ID>' to delete the blacklist with ID
        * 'EDIB <settings>' to modify an existing blacklist

       search template management:

        * 'LSTT [ID]' to list all search templates, or the one with the passed ID
          (format is the same as epgsearch.conf)
        * 'NEWT <settings>' to add a new search template
          REMARK: the value of element ID is ignored. epgsearch will always
          assign the next free ID
        * 'DELT <ID>' to delete the search template with ID
        * 'EDIT <settings>' to modify an existing search template
        * 'DEFT [ID]' returns the ID of the default search template. When passing an
          ID it activates the corresponding template as default.

       extended EPG categories:

        * 'LSTE [ID] to get the extended EPG categories defined in epgsearchcats.conf
          or the one with the given ID. (format is the same as epgsearchcats.conf)

       misc:

        * 'SETP [option]' returns the current value of the given setup option or a
          list of all options with their current values.
          The following options can be accessed:
           - ShowFavoritesMenu
           - UseSearchTimers

       timer conflicts:

        * 'LSCC [REL]' returns the current timer conflicts. With the option 'REL' only
          relevant conflicts are listed. The result list looks like this for example
          when we have 2 timer conflicts at one time:

          1190232780:152|30|50#152#45:45|10|50#152#45

          '1190232780' is the time of the conflict in seconds since 1970-01-01. It's
          followed by list of timers that have a conflict at this time:

          '152|30|50#152#45' is the description of the first conflicting timer. Here:

          '152' is VDR's timer id of this timer as returned from VDR's LSTT command
          '30' is the percentage of recording that would be done (0...100)
          '50#152#45' is the list of concurrent timers at this conflict

          '45|10|50#152#45' describes the next conflict

10. Customizing the EPG menus
       The file epgsearchmenu.conf in your plugins config directory is used to
       store the entries for customizing the EPG menus. You specify the look
       of each menu (What’s on now, What’s on next, What’s on at ..., Sched‐
       ule, Search results, Favorites) with a separate line. Here’s a sample:

        MenuWhatsOnNow=%chnr%:3|%progrt2s%:5| %time% %t_status%:8|%category%:6| %title% ~ %subtitle%:35
        MenuWhatsOnNext=%chnr%:3|%time% %t_status%:8|%category%:8| %title% ~ %subtitle%:35
        MenuWhatsOnElse=%chnr%:3|%time% %t_status%:8|%category%:8| %title% ~ %subtitle%:35
        MenuSchedule=%time% %t_status%:8|%genre%:14| %title% ~ %subtitle%:35
        MenuSearchResults=%chnr%:3|%datesh% %time% %t_status%:14|%genre%:8| %title%%colon% %subtitle%:35
        MenuFavorites=%chnr%:3|%time%:6|%timespan%:7|%t_status%:14|%genre%:8| %title%%colon%%subtitle%:35

       E.g. the entry ’MenuWhatsOnNow’ tells epgsearch how you would like to
       build a line for the menu ’What’s on now’. This would create a menu
       line starting with the channel number, followed by a progress bar in
       text2skin style, a space of one char, the start time, the timer status,
       the EPG category (like "movie") and finally the title and subtitle.

       The values for MenuWhatsOnNext, MenuWhatsOnElse, MenuSchedule, MenuSe‐
       archResults, MenuFavorites specify the menu ’What’s on next’, ’What’s
       on at ...’, ’Schedule’, ’Search results’ and ’Favorites’ respectively.
       If you do not specify one entry, epgsearch uses it’s default menu look.

       ’MenuSearchResults’ has something special: If you want to have differ‐
       ent layouts for your search results depending on the search, you can
       use more then one menu template. Simply define e.g. an additional

        MenuSearchResultsTip of the Day=%chnr%:3|%time_w%:4|%t_status%:3|%genre%:10|%title%%colon% %subtitle%:35

       This will produce an additional menu item "Result menu layout" in the
       edit menu of a search where you can choose between the default menu
       template and your own templates. In the example above you will get "Tip
       of the Day" as selection entry, since epgsearch simply cuts the leading
       "MenuSearchResults". When you display the search results the chosen
       template will be used instead of the default one.

       The following variables exist:

        %time%           - start time in format HH:MM
        %timeend%        - end time in format HH:MM
        %date%           - start date in format TT.MM.YY
        %datesh%         - start date in format TT.MM.
        %time_w%         - weekday name
        %time_d%         - start day in format TT
        %time_lng%       - start time in seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00
        %timespan%       - timespan from now to the beginning of an event, e.g. 'in 15m'
                           or the time an event is already running, e.g. '10m'.
        %length%         - length in seconds
        %title%          - title
        %subtitle%       - subtitle
        %summary%        - summary
        %htmlsummary%    - summary, where all CR are replaced with '<br />'
        %eventid%        - numeric event ID
        %t_status%       - timer status ('T', 't', 'R')
        %v_status%       - VPS status
        %r_status%       - running status
        %status%         - complete status, the same as
                           '%t_status%%v_status%%r_status%'

        %<epg-category>% - a value from the extended EPG categories, specified in
                           epgsearchcats.conf, like %genre% or %category%

       for the ’Whats on...’ and ’Search results’ menu there are also:

        %chnr%           - channel number
        %chsh%           - the short channel name (>=vdr-1.3.15)
        %chlng%          - the 'normal' channel name
        %chdata%         - VDR's internal channel representation (e.g. 'S19.2E-1-1101-28106')
        %progr%          - graphical progress bar (not for menu 'Search results'),
                           requires VDRSymbols font for vdr>=1.5.3
        %progrT2S%       - progress bar in text2skin style (not for menu 'Search results')

       some indepent variables:

        %colon%          - the sign ':'
        %datenow%        - current date in format TT.MM.YY
        %dateshnow%      - current date in format TT.MM.
        %timenow%        - current time in format HH:MM
        %videodir%       - VDR video directory (e.g. /video)
        %plugconfdir%    - VDR plugin config directory (e.g. /etc/vdr/plugins)
        %epgsearchdir%   - epgsearchs config directory (e.g. /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch)

       The variables are not case sensitive. You can also use variables for
       extended EPG categories defined in epgsearchcats.conf or use your own
       user defined variables defined in epgsearchuservars.conf

       An entry consists of up to 6 tables separated with ’|’. The last entry
       of each table should declare the table width in chars, separated with
       ’:’.

       If you use a separator like ’~’, ’-’ or ’#’ to separate items like
       title or subtitle, e.g. %title% ~ %subtitle%, and the subtitle is
       empty, then epgsearch will try to fix this automatically to avoid a
       trailing separator.

       You should vary the tab width values to fit your needs, since the look
       often depends on the selected skin. epgsearchmenu.conf is not reloaded
       with every plugin call, since this is only useful when testing the conf
       file. To activate the permanent reload for testing your conf, pass the
       new start parameter ’-r’ or ’--reloadmenuconf’ in your runvdr.

       There’s a sample epgsearchmenu.conf in the subdirectory "conf". For a
       quick try copy it to your plugins config directory (e.g. /etc/vdr/plug‐
       ins).

       To enable icons from WarEagleIcon-Patch simply put the line

        WarEagleIcons=1

       to epgsearchmenu.conf. This also works for vdr>=1.5.3, which uses true
       type fonts, if you have installed and selected the font VDRSymbols.ttf
       (available at http://andreas.vdr-developer.org/fonts/download.html)

       NOTE: As long as there is a file epgsearchmenu.conf with an entry for a
       special menu, all setup settings regarding the look of this menu are
       ignored.

       See also "epgsearchmenu.con(5)".

11. Working with the timer conflict menu
       If a conflict is detected within the periodic conflict background check
       you get an OSD message which informs you about it. Pressing ’Ok’ you
       will get a menu that displays all relevant conflicts. You can manually
       call this menu in epgsearch in the menu ’Search/Actions’.

       Besides the relevant conflicts (relevance is controlled via the setup
       options of epgsearch) there may also be conflicts which are not classi‐
       fied as important. If so, you can press ’Show all’ to get the complete
       list. The menu title always displays the number of relevant conflicts
       and the total number.

       The list displays first the time when a conflict appears and then all
       timers that will fail here. A timer entry consists of the channel num‐
       ber and its name followed by the timer priority and the percentage
       value that shows how much of the timer will be recorded. Finally the
       timer’s file entry is displayed.

       When you select a timer entry and press ’Ok’ or ’Details’ you get a new
       menu which displays all concurrent timers. This menu allows you to
       resolve the conflict by

        - searching a repeat for an event
        - disabling a timer
        - deleting a timer
        - changing the timers start- or stop-time or its priority
        - executing any other commands on this timer

       An entry of this menu consists of the sign ’>’ to indicate an active
       timer, the channel number, the start and stop time, the priority, the
       number of the device that will do the recording (or ’C’ for conflict)
       and the timer’s file entry. Pressing ’Ok’ on a timer entry will show
       you its event description if present.

       If one returns from this menu to the conflict overview menu there will
       be an automatic update to see if a conflict was really resolved. Some
       changes to a timer (like modifying start/stop or deleting a timer) in
       the conflict details menu also cause an immediate return to the
       overview menu and produce an update.

12. User defined variables
       You can create your own variables to be used in any place that supports
       variables, like the default recording directory for manually created
       timers, the recording directory of a search timer or in your customized
       EPG menus.  Put them in the file epgsearchuservars.conf.

       Variables looks like %Variablename%.

       "Variablename" can be consist of any alphanumerical character. Space
       and special characters are not allowed.

       The variable names are case-insensitive.

       Examples for possible names:

        %Series% %DocuVar1% %ThemesSubtitleDate1%

       Assignment

        %Series%=New series~Thriller

       The variable %Series% will be assigned with the string "New
       series~Thriller".

       Assignments are always strings. Spaces stay spaces.

        %Path%=%Series%

       The variable %Path% gets the content of the variable %Series%.

       You can do nearly everything:

        %Path%=%Serie%~Lost

       The variable %Path% contains now the string "New series~Thriller~Lost".

       Control structures

       You can use simple "if then else" constructions.

       These constructions cannot contain strings, only variables.  Spaces are
       ignored.

        %Foo%=Other

        %Variable%=%Path% ? %Path% : %Foo%

       If %Path% is not empty, assign the content of %Path% to %Variable%,
       otherwise the content of %Foo%.

       "%Path% ?" means "not empty?". You can use other checks.

        %Variable%=%Path%!=5 ? %Path% : %Foo%

       "%Path%!=5 ?" means "is %Path% equal 5?"

       You can also compare variables.

        %Five%=5

        %Variable%=%Path%!=%Five% ? %Path% : %Foo%

       Other possible checks:

        ==   equal
        !=   not equal

       Calling a system command

       You can call external commands. The returned string will be assigned to
       a variable

        %uservar%=system(scriptname[, parameters])

       Calls the script "scriptname" with the parameters defined in the
       optional list of ’parameters’. This can be an arbitrary expression con‐
       taining other user variables, but not again a system call or a condi‐
       tional expression.

       Sample:

        %myVar%=system(/usr/local/bin/myscript.sh, -t %title% -s %subtitle% -u %myOtherVar%)

       The script must return a string without line break!

       If the script returns nothing, an empty string will be assigned to the
       Variable %Result%.

       Possible variables

       for a list of already builtin variables refer to the section "Customiz‐
       ing the EPG menus" Furthermore you can use every variable defined in
       epgsearchcats.conf.

       See "epgsearchcats.conf(5)".

       EXAMPLES

        # Weekday, Date, Time
        %DateStr%=%time_w% %date% %time%

        # Themes or Subtitle or Date
        %ThemesSubtitleDate1%=%Subtitle% ? %Subtitle% : %DateStr%
        %ThemesSubtitleDate%=%Themes% ? %Themes% : %ThemesSubtitleDate1%

        # Calls this script to get a recording path
        %DocuScript%=system(doku.pl, -t %Title% -s %Subtitle% -e %Episode% -th %Themes% -c %Category% -g %Genre%)
        %Docu%=%DocuScript%

13. Email notification
       If you want to get email notifications about timers added/modi‐
       fied/removed by the search timer thread or about timer conflicts, first
       copy the script ’sendEmail.pl’ to the place where your executables are
       (e.g. /usr/local/bin) and then configure your email account in the
       setup. Press ’Test’ to check if it works. There should be something
       like ’Email successfully sent’ at the end of the output.  The content
       of the mails is defined by the files

         - epgsearchupdmail.templ (for search timer update notifications)
         - epgsearchconflmail.templ (for timer conflict notifications)

       You can find sample files in the ’conf’ directory. Copy them to
       epgsearchs config directory (e.g. /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch).

       Customizing the notifications mails

       The content of the mails can be customized in many ways. You can use
       plain text or HTML (see the sample conf/epgsearchupdmail-html.templ).
       For an update mail you have to define the following sections:

         - "subject" to be used as mail subject
         - "mailbody" the body of the mail:
           put '%update.newtimers%' in the place where the list of new timers should
           appear. The same for %update.modtimers% and %update.deltimers% for the
           list of changed or deleted timers.
         - "timer" the description of one timer. This section is used to display one
           timer within a timer list, e.g. in %update.newtimers%

       each section is enclosed in a pseudo XML tag.

       The following variables can be used in the section <mailbody>:

         - %update.newtimers%      - will be replaced with the list of new timers
                                     created with this update. The timers are
                                     displayed as defined in the section '<timer>'
         - %update.countnewtimers% - the number of new timers
         - %update.modtimers%      - same as %update.newtimers% but for modified
                                     timers.
         - %update.countmodtimers% - the number of modified timers
         - %update.deltimers%      - same as %update.newtimers% but for deleted
                                     timers. (Note: a deleted timer has eventually
                                     no event assigned to it. So all event variables
                                     within the timer section will be substituted to
                                     an empty string.)
         - %update.countdeltimers% - the number of deleted timers
         - %colon%                 - the sign ':'
         - %datenow%               - current date in format TT.MM.YY
         - %dateshnow%             - current date in format TT.MM.
         - %timenow%               - current time in format HH:MM

       The following variables can be used in the section <timer>:

         - %timer.date%            - date of the timer
         - %timer.start%           - start time of the timer
         - %timer.stop%            - stop time of the timer
         - %timer.file%            - recording directory of the timer
         - %timer.chnr%            - channel number
         - %timer.chsh%            - short channel name
         - %timer.chlng%           - channel name
         - %timer.search%          - name of the search timer, that created the timer
         - %timer.searchid%        - id of the search timer, that created the timer
         - %timer.modreason%       - the reason for a timer modification in plain text
         - any event variable (as in '10. Customizing the EPG menus')
         - any extended EPG variable as defined in epgsearchcats.conf
         - any user variable (as in '12. User defined variables')

       For a conflict notification mail the following sections exist:

         - "subject" to be used as mail subject
         - "mailbody" the body of the mail. Put %conflict.conflicts% in the place
           where the list of conflict times should appear (Note: there can be more
           than one timer conflict at the same time!). A conflict time uses the
           section 'conflictsat' to display its content.
         - "conflictsat" the description of one time where one or more conflicts
           exists. Put %conflict.confltimers% in the place where the list of conflict
           timers should appear.
         - "confltimer" the description of one conflicting timer

       The following variables can be used in the section <mailbody>:

         - %conflict.count%        - complete number of timer conflicts
         - %conflict.conflicts%    - list of times with conflicting timers

       The following variables can be used in the section <conflictsat>:

         - %conflict.date%         - date of the conflict
         - %conflict.time%         - time of the conflict
         - %conflict.confltimers%  - list of conflicting timers for this time

       The section <conflicttimer> can use the same variables as the section
       <timer> in an update mail (see above).

14. The conf.d subdirectory
       epgsearch supports a configuration mechanism well-known in linux. The
       settings of the configuration files

         - epgsearchuservars.conf
         - epgsearchdirs.conf
         - epgsearchmenu.conf
         - epgsearchcats.conf

       can also be given in a file with arbitrary name in the subdirectory
       conf.d in <plugin-configuration-directory>/epgsearch. This allows one
       to quickly test different setups only by exchanging files instead of
       editing them. The format of these files is

         [<section name>]
         <settings>
         ...

         [<section name>]
         <settings>
         ...

       where <section_name> is one of the following:

         - epgsearchuservars
         - epgsearchdirs
         - epgsearchmenu
         - epgsearchcats

       The <settings> format follows the one in the corresponding configura‐
       tion file.  Comments beginning with # are allowed, also blank lines.
       At startup epgsearch first reads its ’regular’ configuration files and
       then the conf.d subdirectory.  It’s allowed to overwrite variables
       already defined in other files (although this is signaled with a warn‐
       ing in epgsearch’s log file.).

SEE ALSO
       epgsearch(1), "epgsearch.conf(5)", "epgsearchuservars.con(5)",
       "epgsearchdirs.conf(5)", "epgsearchmenu.conf(5)",
       "epgsearchcmds.conf(5)"

AUTHOR (man pages)
       Mike Constabel <epgsearch (at) constabel (dot) net>

REPORT BUGS
       Bug reports (german):

       <http://www.vdr-developer.org/mantisbt/>

       Mailing list:

       <http://www.vdr-developer.org/mailman/listinfo/epgsearch>

COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
       Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Christian Wieninger

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
       CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General
       Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
       51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA Or, point
       your browser to http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

       The author can be reached at cwieninger@gmx.de

       The project’s page is at http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch

       The MD5 code is derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-
       Digest Algorithm.



perl v5.8.8                       2008-04-14                      epgsearch(5)