The purpose of this long, arduous venture was to find a way to simply reduce the size of video files recorded with a Canon ELPH 330 HS digicam. This camera, and surely others, records 720p, 30fps video at a bitrate of 24Mbps, which is at least twice as much as should be necessary. Remember this is a consumer level point-&-shoot whose main draws were: 10x optical zoom; pocketable. This high bitrate results in a 6 minute video being over 1GB. Too much.
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Tag Archives: OS X
Copy video create date from original file
This is the companion script for: Video re-encode script
It uses exiftool to copy the video date atom(s) and setfile (is or was included with Apple’s Developer Tools) to change the file system dates. It will more than likely throw exiftool “File not found” errors and I’m not quite sure why. It has never failed to actually work despite this in my experience, however be very careful to not use this on your original source videos.
Hopefully the settings and prompts make sense.
(* http://strawhousepig.net/
This uses Apple's command line developer tools command 'setfile' to set the filesytem dates.
https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
I believe an Apple Developer account is required for that, but I am not sure.
Uses 'exiftool' to set track date atoms.
https://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
*)
-- Set to 'false' to omit initial dialog prompts. Does not affect final confirmation prompt.
property prompt_me : true
-- UTC timezone. Leave blank ("") to not use the timezone setting.
property tzone : "-8:00"
on run
do_it(false)
end run
on do_it(redo)
repeat
if tzone is not "" then set tzone to "-timezone=\"" & tzone & "\" " -- There is a trailing space here.
if prompt_me is true then
if button returned of (display dialog "Choose a TARGET file to set creation and modification dates of.") is "OK" then
set newfile to choose file with prompt "Select TARGET file to set creation and modified dates of:"
end if
else
set newfile to choose file with prompt "Select TARGET file to set creation and modified dates of:"
end if
set filepath to newfile as string
if prompt_me is true then
if button returned of (display dialog "Choose a SOURCE file to *get* creation and modification dates from.") is "OK" then
set oldfile to choose file with prompt "Select SOURCE file to get dates from: " & filepath
end if
else
set oldfile to choose file with prompt "Select SOURCE file to get dates from: " & filepath
end if
set newfilename to name of (info for of newfile)
if newfilename is not (name of (info for of oldfile)) then
set warn_button to button returned of (display alert "File names do not match. Proceed?" as warning buttons {"Cancel", "Start Over", "Proceed"})
if warn_button is "Cancel" then
return
else
if warn_button is "Start Over" then
set redo to true
exit repeat
end if
end if
end if
tell application "System Events" to set [c_date, m_date] to [creation date of oldfile, modification date of oldfile]
set [p_date_c, p_date_m] to [c_date, m_date] -- Saving "pretty" date for dialog prompt.
set c_date to ((month of c_date as integer) & "/" & day of c_date & "/" & year of c_date & " " & hours of c_date & ":" & minutes of c_date & ":" & seconds of c_date) as string
log c_date
set m_date to ((month of m_date as integer) & "/" & day of m_date & "/" & year of m_date & " " & hours of m_date & ":" & minutes of m_date & ":" & seconds of m_date) as string
log m_date
if button returned of (display dialog "This will set the creation and modification dates of file " & filepath & " to:" & return & return & p_date_c & return & p_date_m & return & return & "Proceed?") is "OK" then
try
-- Have to include full path to exiftool binary because AppleScript uses the Bourne shell which doesn't have /usr/local/bin in its path? *rolls eyes*
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/exiftool " & tzone & "-*date=\"`/usr/local/bin/exiftool -time:CreateDate " & quoted form of POSIX path of oldfile & "`\" -wm w " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
-- Will throw a "File not found" error if this takes over a certain amount of time. rm must be running faster than exiftool can finish?
display dialog "The 'exiftool' command said: " & theErr
end try
delay 1
try
-- Ready for this, exiftool adds "_original" to the end of the file it's going to modify tags/atoms of. This is still 'newfile' but with a new name.
-- If we manually add "_original" to 'newfile' rm will throw an error looking for newfile_original_original... Wha?
do shell script "rm " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
display dialog "The 'rm' command said: " & theErr
end try
delay 1
try
-- Ready again? The original path to 'newfile' is valid again for this... Wha??
do shell script "setfile -d '" & c_date & "' -m '" & m_date & "' " & quoted form of POSIX path of newfile
on error theErr
display dialog "The 'setfile' command said: " & theErr
end try
end if
exit repeat
end repeat
if redo then do_it(false)
end do_it
Walk down a directory to label (and reveal) zero byte files
_count is not working and I’m not sure why. :/
The walkFolder()
function is recursive, so be careful where you choose to run this. Made to help identify corrupt old archives that have been copied (and copied) from Mac to WINDOWS to CDs and back.
on walkFolder(f, _count)
list folder f
repeat with i in the result
set _item to (alias (f & i))
if folder of (info for _item) then
walkFolder(f & i & ":", _count)
else
if first character of i is not "." then
if size of (info for _item) is 0 then
tell application "Finder"
set label index of _item to 7 -- Gray. Perhaps adding a spotlight comment would be better...
reveal _item -- Comment this out if you expect a lot of results.
end tell
set _count to _count + 1
end if
end if
end if
end repeat
return _count
end walkFolder
on run {}
set _count to 0
try
tell application "Finder" to set cwd to folder of window 1 as alias
on error
set cwd to path to desktop folder
end try
set theFolder to (choose folder "Select a folder to list:" default location cwd) as string
my walkFolder(theFolder, _count)
display dialog (_count as text) & " files found to be 0 bytes" giving up after 600
end run
Apologies for formatting errors as I’m editing this post on Safari from OS X 10.5 which doesn’t work well with WordPress’ auto-drafting.
AppleScript Folder Action to auto-trim folder
[UPDATE] This does not work as expected. Doesn’t seem to run as a plain AppleScript and when re-worked into an Automator folder action workflow (word salad anyone?) it might work… It has and it also hasn’t. But, even when it has I have the sneaking suspicion iCloud does not propagate deletes from macOS. Wouldn’t be the only inexplicable behavior from that service.
[UPDATE]This has been moved to a Google Drive folder. I’ve had enough of ghost folders taking up all the space. The principle is however the same, except now it just works. Boom. Roasted.
I have a security camera that FTPs a new folder everyday into a local iCloud folder on my home server. FYI, the real location of your iCloud Drive is within ~/Library/Mobile Documents, which is a package folder.
This storage process has not proved ideal since iCloud doesn’t handle automation very well. It works with Finder windows and Save dialogs, but background processes not so much. The result for me has been constant reminders that my iCloud drive is “full” despite deleting the bulk of folders. Most of the space never comes back and many times folders just “deleted” reappear.
Maybe adding another automated process to this soup is not going to help and may make things worse (will bird even notice when items are removed this way?), but what the hell. This script will delete files oldest first until the number of items it counted when it was called reaches the “keep” count (set to “5” here).
This may be attached to any folder, and items may be sent to the Trash or deleted immediately with rm. but be aware that it does not send files to the Trash. They are removed with rm.
-- http://strawhousepig.net/
-- Number of items to keep.
property keep : 5
-- Number of seconds until the script may run again (incase of runaway process adding to folder).
property cycle : 10
-- plist to store time last run.
property the_dom : "applescript.folderaction.trimfolder"
-- Should items be deleted immediately (set to false) or sent to the Trash (set to true)?
property trashit : true
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
do_it(this_folder)
end adding folder items to
on run
set this_folder to choose folder
do_it(this_folder)
end run
on do_it(this_folder)
set the_key to "epoch"
set the_val to (do shell script "date '+%s'")
if my read_array(the_dom, the_key, the_val, cycle) is true then return
do shell script "defaults write " & the_dom & " " & the_key & " " & quoted form of the_val
tell application "Finder"
set _items to items of this_folder
set _items to (sort _items by creation date)
end tell
if (count of _items) is greater than keep then
try
repeat until (count of _items) is equal to keep
if trashit is true then
delete item 1 of _items
else
do shell script "rm -R " & quoted form of POSIX path of (item 1 of _items as alias)
end if
set _items to rest of _items
end repeat
on error theErr number theNum
if theNum is not -128 then display dialog theErr giving up after 60
end try
end if
end do_it
on read_array(the_dom, the_key, the_val, cycle)
try
set last_run to (do shell script "defaults read " & the_dom & " " & the_key)
on error -- Will error if there is nothing to read.
return false
end try
if the_val - last_run is less than cycle then
return true
else
return false
end if
end read_array
Sync folders when drive is plugged in.
[UPDATE] Didn’t realize how dangerous this is if you actually need to get a backup file(s) off the drive rather than restore from catastrophic failure. Now prompts to confirm sync before proceeding. Should also prompt to eject when complete.
The previous AppleScript post is an earlier version of nearly the same thing. I posted it here to be able to write a new script for where I work. Its intention is to keep an on-site duplicate of an off-site backup. This can of course be used for simple backups and/or folder syncing operations if given the appropriate trigger(s).
To have this script run automagically attach it as a Folder Action to the Volumes folder (/Volumes).
Also, as the previous post, this script calls an rsync binary in a custom install location. Please be aware of that.
Because I can: rsync manual
-- The name of the volume to watch for.
property trigger : "Backup"
-- The paths of the folders to sync. Drag-n-drop supported (choose "Alias").
property theFolders : {"/Do not/forget to/add quotes around", "/And/commas between/items"}
-- rsync options. I use '-rtE' (recursive, preserve times, copy Extended attributes/resource forks)
property rsync_options : "-rtE --delete" -- For mirroring the contents of source dir.
-- property rsync_options : "-rtE --ignore-existing" -- For keeping deleted files on backup. WARNING: also dupes files moved within the source dir.
-- See the rsync manual (man rsync) for more info.
property skip : {} -- Leave empty. Meant to hold items from theFolders which gave rsync an error so we can start over but ignore items in this list.
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
try
repeat with i in added_items
if name of (info for i) is trigger then
if the result of (display dialog trigger & " drive connected. Would you like to sync available source folders now?" giving up after 600) is not false then
do_it(skip)
do shell script "logger 'Sync backup folders: Complete'"
ejectit(trigger)
end if
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
on error theErr
do shell script "logger 'Sync backup folders: " & theErr & "'"
end try
end adding folder items to
on run
do_it(skip)
do shell script "logger 'Sync backup folders: Complete'"
ejectit(trigger)
end run
on ejectit(trigger)
if the result of (display dialog "Backup sync complete. Eject drive '" & trigger & "'?") is not false then
tell application "Finder" to eject trigger
end if
end ejectit
on do_it(skip)
tell application "System Events" to set trigger_path to POSIX path of every disk whose name is trigger -- When a drive is mounted and its previous mount point was not removed the new mount point will be given a unique number to follow the name (which isn't shown in the Finder), e.g. "/Volumes/Backup 1". This asks the System for the path rather than us blindly using text.
if trigger_path is {} then
display dialog "The drive '" & trigger & "' does not appear to be mounted. :("
return
end if
set rsync_options to rsync_options & " "
repeat with i in theFolders
tell application "Finder"
if not (exists (i as POSIX file)) then
set end of skip to i as text
end if
end tell
log skip
if i is not in skip then
try
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/rsync " & rsync_options & quoted form of i & " '" & trigger_path & "/'"
set end of skip to i as text
on error the_err
if i is last item in theFolders then
display dialog "rsync encountered a problem: " & the_err
else
if button returned of (display dialog "rsync encountered a problem: " & the_err & return buttons {"Cancel", "Continue"}) is "Continue" then
set end of skip to i as text
do_it(skip)
end if
end if
end try
end if
end repeat
set skip to {}
end do_it
This script includes error handling that isn’t well tested. Getting it to work with it at all was a bit of a trick (particularly if not (exists (i as POSIX file))
since if not (exists POSIX file i)
does not work as expected). So that whole “skip” idea may not work as intended if you are asked to continue. The last do_it(skip)
call may need to be my do_it(skip)
instead.
Using Netatalk & CUPS
Using 20+ year old hardware is as much a curse as it is a blessing.
Set-Up:
Imagesetter (AccuSet 1000) – RIP (PowerMac 7500) – CUPS server (Raspberry Pi) – Clients (OS X 10.5, macOS 10.12)
The OS X 10.5 client currently serves as an MDNS print server for the newer OS machine since that is the last Macintosh OS version to speak AppleTalk, which the even older RIP requires (thankfully via ethernet).
In this day and age OS X 10.5 (Intel) has nothing close to a modern web browser. Thanks to the incredible persons at floodgap.com, 10.5 on PPC does in the wonderful TenFourFox, which (as its name implies) means OS X 10.4 has a more modern web browser than 10.6. Hell, Mac OS 9 has Classilla (progenitor of TenFourFox). In a perfect world I would use the 10.5 machine as the server for a newer, betterer everyday workstation, but that money doesnt exist. So out comes the Raspberry Pi.
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Set creation and modification date
This is to correct file times on photos that were imported from cameras with bad date settings or when they have been transferred to-and-fro and picked up the wrong data some where or after re-encoding high bit rate video to save a few GBs. [This does not alter the date atoms encoded in (most?) video files. ffmpeg can do that, however.]
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Set file ownership AppleScript script
I occasionally transfer files from WINDOWS to a Mac anonymously and upon doing so end up with a file owned by ‘nobody’. So I wrote this to set the owner to the person who runs this as a Folder Action. Can also be run from the AppleScript menuextra. Continue reading
OS X Server 5 Shenanigans
OS X Server 5 for OS X 10.10. and 10.11, while a significant improvement to Lion Server for OS X 10.7, still behaves oddly when mixing SSL and non-SSL requests. Whereas before it wanted every request redirected to the SSL pipe, now it will let you do either. It won’t, however, let you do both.
WordPress will try to do both. Why? I dunno. It should work, and did on plain Apache 2, but OS X Server 5 puts up a proxy to the WAN and serves from a different port. This is not presented upfront to the Server.app user, but is most likely in the docs. RTFM much? Ha-ha! No.
The affect this had on my WordPress install is instead of logging in being presented with a page that merely stated,
You don’t have permission to view this page.
Or some such equally helpful information. A little web searching turned up the answer. To overcome this the following can be added to wp-includes/http.php
/* Adding this BS for OS X Server 5 being a dick... */
if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') {
$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';
}
I saw a post on wordpress.net that said to put this into config.php, but that did not work for me. Neither did the mod_rewrite mumbo-jumbo in that thread and apparently it didn’t for the OP, either.
I admit being ignorant to what HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO is, but it appears to be a HTTP header from an Apache mod Apple is running. Unique to them or something well known? I dunno. I don’t pretend to try to keep up with this stuff any longer. That’s why I went to WordPress; So I wouldn’t have to.
Save list of folder contents
[UPDATE] Revisited this one and made it a little nicer. It is faster and gives a total count of directories and files, skips invisibles (but you can undo that), and doesn’t error on item names longer than 31 characters. Confirmed to run on 10.4, YMMV.
This AppleScript will create a file containing a tree style list of all files inside the chosen directory and save that list in a file created in that directory. The list file will include the path of the listed directory as well as the date and time it was saved and a tally of me bananas… er, folders and files under the starting directory.
The default directory in the choose dialog is the folder of the Finder’s frontmost window unless there are no Finder windows. In which case the default is the Desktop folder.
It does not follow aliases (not sure about symlinks) and will indicate an alias by placing ” [alias]” behind the file name.
This is actually a modified version of a script that’s been around the web for years.
-- http://strawhousepig.net/
set fileList to ""
set d_count to 0
set f_count to 0
global fileList, d_count, f_count
on listFolder(f, s)
list folder f as alias without invisibles
repeat with i in the result
set finfo to (info for alias (f & i))
if folder of finfo then
set d_count to d_count + 1
set fileList to fileList & s & i & "/" & return
listFolder(f & i & ":", s & " ")
else
if alias of finfo then
set f_count to f_count + 1
set fileList to fileList & s & i & " [alias]" & return
else
set f_count to f_count + 1
set fileList to fileList & s & i & return
end if
end if
end repeat
return {fileList, d_count, f_count}
end listFolder
try
tell application "Finder" to set cwd to (POSIX path of (folder of window 1 as string)) as POSIX file
on error
set cwd to path to desktop folder
end try
set theFolder to (choose folder "Select a folder to list:" default location cwd) as string
--This will get the name of the folder for use in the name of the generated file
set folderName to name of (info for (theFolder as alias))
--This will get the Unix style path of the folder for info purposes inside the file itself
set folderPath to POSIX path of theFolder
set infoList to listFolder(theFolder, "")
set fileList to "# File list of: " & folderPath & " on " & (current date) & return & item 2 of infoList & " folders and " & item 3 of infoList & " files total." & return & return & item 1 of infoList
set listFile to ((theFolder) as text) & "!File list of this folder (" & folderName & ")" & (do shell script "date \"+ %Y-%m-%d %H%M\"") & ".txt"
tell application "Finder"
set newFile to (open for access file listFile with write permission)
set eof newFile to 0
write fileList to newFile
close access newFile
open listFile as alias
end tell