Arch Linux

vicious

Member

Registered: 2004-11-09

Posts: 113

Is my FAM setup ok?

I have just added "fam" to the list of deamons in rc.conf. This way nautilus (and probably some other apps) refreshes it's display when a directory is modified.

However, I'm not sure if it works alright. If I create a new file (with "echo > new_file"), then I must wait a few seconds until nautilus notices the change. Shouldn't it happen immediately? I have 2.6.8.1 kernel and it has the support for monitoring filesystem changes, so polling is not necessary. Is fam package built with all the necessary options? Or have I done something wrong when setting up nautilus or fam?

i3839

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 1,185

Re: Is my FAM setup ok?

It looks like FAM doesn't support dnotify by default, and that a seperate patch needs to be applied to enable it. Looking at the pkgbuild it doesn't seem to happen.

colnago

Member

From: Victoria, BC

Registered: 2004-03-25

Posts: 438

Re: Is my FAM setup ok?

A bit off topic, but there is a setting in /etc/fam/fam.conf that should be increased to prevent fam from exiting.  'idle_timeout = 5' is the default, but it should be longer.

vicious

Member

Registered: 2004-11-09

Posts: 113

Re: Is my FAM setup ok?

I tried dnotify patch for fam and IT'S GREAT! I can't express how good it seems to work now.

Here's a modified PKGBUILD (sorry for missing MD5 checksums):

# $Id: PKGBUILD,v 1.10 2004/09/08 17:40:08 judd Exp $
# Maintainer: dorphell <dorphell@archlinux.org>
# Contributor: Tom Newsom <Jeepster@gmx.co.uk>
pkgname=fam
pkgver=2.7.0
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="File Alteration Monitor - used by KDE, GNOME and others"
depends=('portmap' 'gcc')
url="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/"
backup=(etc/fam/fam.conf)
source=(ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/download/stable/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz fam 
  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/blfs/5.1/fam-2.7.0-dnotify-1.patch)

build() {
  cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
  patch -p1 -i ../fam-2.7.0-dnotify-1.patch
  libtoolize --force
  aclocal
  automake --add-missing
  autoconf
  #patch -Np1 -i ../gcc340.patch
  ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc/fam
  make || return 1
  make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install
  install -D -m755 ../fam $startdir/pkg/etc/rc.d/fam
}

and modified script "fam" (installed in /etc/rc.d):

#!/bin/bash

. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions

PID=`pidof -o %PPID /usr/bin/fam`
case "$1" in
  start)
    stat_busy "Starting File Alteration Monitor"
    if [ -z "$PID" ]; then 
       /usr/sbin/famd
    fi
    if [ ! -f /var/run/daemons/portmap ]; then
       stat_fail
       echo "ERROR: portmap is not running"
       exit 1
    fi
    if [ ! -z "$PID" -o $? -gt 0 ]; then
      stat_fail
    else
      add_daemon fam
      stat_done
    fi
    ;;
  stop)
    stat_busy "Stopping File Alteration Monitor"
    [ ! -z "$PID" ]  && kill $PID &> /dev/null
    if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
      stat_fail
    else
      rm_daemon fam
      stat_done
    fi
    ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop
    sleep 1
    $0 start
    ;;
  *)
    echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"  
esac

The patch for gcc 3.4 is no longer needed because I upgraded fam to the version 2.7.0.
What's changed? 1) pkgver 2) added patch 3) runs autotools because configure.in is patched 4) the daemon is now called /usr/sbin/famd instead of /usr/bin/fam. I did it thanks to lfs info.
THIS SHOULD GO TO THE OFFICIAL PACKAGE. Although Arch usually doesn't patch working sources, this patch is so great that I think patching is fully justified.

By the way, you should enable portmap, fam, dbus and hal daemons in your rc.conf so that gnome has all its great features.

i3839

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 1,185

Re: Is my FAM setup ok?

If you didn't already, perhaps it's a good idea to send an email to dorphell or to post a message to the bugtracker, can't count on the maintainer to read this forum.