Alert on FTP upload ?

[pihaih]

Hi
I want to use one of my pi as FTP server to store pictures sent by a webcam.
Installed proftpd with default settings, camera saves pictures there already, works well so far

Here is the question I have
How can I make the pi sending an e-mail with the URL of the saved file, so I simply can click on it to view it on my smartphone?
At the final stage pi will be accessed through dyndns, so I should be able to add the hostname:port rather than the ip address to the url.
thanks for any help

pihaih

PS: Keep in mind...I am into redmond products since the beginning, but a total newbie to pi, but starting to like this little thing big time, so talk in simple terms to me please

[joan]

if I understand correctly you want the Pi to

1) recognise that a new file has arrived in a (ftp) directory.
2) e-mail the file's url to a fixed e-mail address

[Joe Schmoe]

if I understand correctly you want the Pi to

1) recognise that a new file has arrived in a (ftp) directory.
2) e-mail the file's url to a fixed e-mail address

Assuming this assumption is correct...

There are 2 ways to do it - the easy way and the hard way.

1) The easy way: Write a process that polls - i.e., loops every (say) 30 seconds, checking for a new file and sends the email when it detects one.

2) The hard way: Look into the "file system notification events" stuff (which I've never done, although I looked at it briefly once and it looked not all that complicated) and then you can do it without polling.

[pihaih]

if I understand correctly you want the Pi to

1) recognise that a new file has arrived in a (ftp) directory.
2) e-mail the file's url to a fixed e-mail address

you understand 100% correct, where sending the url to two (or more) e-mail addresses would be perfect

[pihaih]

if I understand correctly you want the Pi to

1) recognise that a new file has arrived in a (ftp) directory.
2) e-mail the file's url to a fixed e-mail address

Assuming this assumption is correct...

There are 2 ways to do it - the easy way and the hard way.

1) The easy way: Write a process that polls - i.e., loops every (say) 30 seconds, checking for a new file and sends the email when it detects one.

2) The hard way: Look into the "file system notification events" stuff (which I've never done, although I looked at it briefly once and it looked not all that complicated) and then you can do it without polling.

Well as a total newbie I guess even the easy way is too hard for me, at least is sounds like...
Is there a "how-to" available so I could try to learn, and is there a chance to do so with zero linux knowledge?

[joan]

The sort of proper way is to use inotify which raises a notification when files change in a directory.

sudo apt-get install inotify-tools

Then create an executable script along the following lines, modifying your-ftp-directory, your-domain, and your-email-address.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
while true
do
   FILE=$(inotifywait -q -e close_write,moved_to --format "%f" your-ftp-directory)
   T=`mktemp`
   D=`date`
   echo "http://your-domain/your-dir/$FILE" >$T
   mail -s "$FILE added at $D" your-email-address <$T
   rm $T
done

Assuming you call the script notify then

chmod +x notify

To run the script in the background do

./notify &

To kill the script

killall notify

This assumes you have mail working on the Pi.

If you don't have mail working it may be sufficient to


sudo apt-get install sendmail
sudo apt-get install bsd-mailx

[pihaih]

Thanks a lot,
I'll start with the mail first and then try to get the script going