NAME¶

EPGSearch – search timers and replacement of the VDR's default schedules menu

OVERVIEW¶

Since the former README got overly large, this man page serves as replacement and explains some features and behaviors in detail. It's thus not really a manual, but an extended README.

CONTENT¶

1. Using variables in the directory entry of a search timer

2. The format of the file 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 the EPG

8. Usage from other plugins or scripts

9. The SVDRP interface

10. Customizing the EPG menus

11. Working with the timer-conflict menu

12. User-defined variables

13. E-mail notifications

14. The conf.d directory

1. Using variables in the directory entry of a search timer¶

When using extended EPG information, variables can be part of the directory entry of a search timer. These variables always have the syntax '%Variable%'. The name of a variable corresponds with the internal name of an extended EPG information as specified in the file epgsearchcats.conf; samples can be found in subdirectory conf of the plugin's source directory.

Example:

    1|Category|Kind|Information,Children,Music,Series,Show,Movie,Sports|3

The category with ID 1 has the internal name 'Category'. So you could refer to it with '%Category%'. Variable names are case-insensitive.

Sample directory entries could look like this:

    My Movies~%Category%
    Children's Movies~%category%
    %CATEGORY%~%genre%

Three more variables are available:

%Title%

Substituted by the name of the event.

%Subtitle%

Substituted by the short text of the event.

%ChLng%

Substituted by the long name of the channel on which the event is broadcasted.

If neither '%Title%' nor '%Subtitle%' is included or part of an inserted user-defined variable, the title is always automatically appended to the directory entry once a timer is created. If 'Series recording' is set to 'yes' in the search timer, the subtitle will be automatically appended, too. So, the directory entry:

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

is the same as:

    %Category%~%Genre%

if 'Series recording' set to 'yes'.

Attention: Title and subtitle will not be appended automatically if one of the variables '%Title%' or '%Subtitle%' is part of the directory specification. This allows forming directory entries like this one:

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

Furthermore, the following search variables are available in addition:

%Search.Query%

Substituted by the search term of the search timer.

%Search.Series%

Substituted by 1 if the search has the 'Series recording' flag set, or 0 otherwise.

See also epgsearchuservars.conf(5).

2. The format of the file epgsearch.conf¶

Every line within the file represents a search or search timer, comprising the following fields:

1 – Unique identifier (ID)

Integer with a positive value.

2 – Search term ("query")

String specifying the search criterion.

3 – Use time

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

4 – Start after [HHMM]

Integer with HH = 0..23, MM = 0..59; other values may result in undefined behavior.

5 – Start before [HHMM]

Integer with HH = 0..23, MM = 0..59; other values may result in undefined behavior.

6 – Use channel

Enumeration with values 0 = no, 1 = interval, 2 = channel group, 3 = FTA (free-to-air) only.

7 – Channel selection

8 – Match case

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

9 – Search mode

Enumeration with the following values:

10 – Use title

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

11 – Use subtitle

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

12 – Use description

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

13 – Use duration

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

14 – Minimum duration [HHMM]

Integer with HH = 0..23, MM = 0..59; other values may result in undefined behavior.

15 – Maximum duration [HHMM]

Integer with HH = 0..23, MM = 0..59; other values may result in undefined behavior.

16 – Use as search timer

Enumeration with the following values:

17 – Use day of week

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

18 – Day of week

Integer value from −127 to 6. The encoding is twofold:

19 – Series recording

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

20 – Directory for recording

String with the name of a directory beneath the VDR's video directory, but without the path to that video directory.

21 – Priority of recording

Integer value from 0 to 99.

22 – Lifetime of recording [days]

Integer value from 0 to 99.

23 – Margin at start [minutes]

Integer with a positive value.

24 – Margin at stop [minutes]

Integer with a positive value.

25 – Use VPS

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

26 – Action

Enumeration with the following values:

27 – Use extended EPG information

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

28 – Extended EPG information values

List of extended EPG category data, each represented by a tuple of:

29 – Avoid repeats

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

30 – Allowed repeats

Integer value from 0 to 99.

31 – Compare title (when testing for repeats)

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

32 – Compare subtitle (when testing for repeats)

Enumeration with value 0 = no, 1 = yes, 2 = allow empty.

33 – Compare summary (when testing for repeats)

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

34 – Compare categories (when testing for repeats)

Integer in which each bit represents an extended EPG category. The first EPG category specified in epgsearchcats.conf is represented by bit 0 (0x01), the second by bit 1 (0x02), etc. A nonzero value enables comparison.

Note: The values of the EPG category identifiers (field 1 of an EPG category entry) are of no relevance for encoding the bit field. Changes to EPG categories may require an update of search timers.

35 – Only repeats within ... days

Integer value from 0 to 999.

36 – Delete recordings after ... days

Integer value from 0 to 999.

37 – Keep ... recordings

Integer value from 0 to 999.

38 – Switch ... minutes before start

Integer value from 0 to 99; only considered if 'action' = 2.

39 – Pause when ...recordings exist

Integer value from 0 to 999.

40 – Blacklist usage mode

Enumeration with values 0 = only global, 1 = selection, 2 = all, 3 = none.

41 – Blacklist selection

List of blacklist identifiers, separated by '|' characters; only considered if 'blacklist usage mode' = 1.

42 – Fuzzy tolerance

Integer value from 1 to 9, serving as threshold for fuzzy searching; only considered if 'search mode' = 5.

43 – Use in favorites menu

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

44 – Result menu layout for favorites menu

Integer referencing a search-result template specified in epgsearchmenu.conf. The value is the index (starting at 0) within all entries having a prefix of 'MenuSearchResults'; see "10. Customizing the EPG menus" in epgsearch(4) for details.

Note: The field is only of relevance if multiple search-result templates have been specified.

45 – Auto delete mode

Enumeration with the following values:

46 – Delete after ... recordings

Integer value from 0 to 999; only considered if 'auto delete mode' = 1.

47 – Delete after ... days after first recording

Integer value from 0 to 999; only considered if 'auto delete mode' = 2.

48 – First day (use as search timer from)

Date and time in Epoch encoding (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC) from which on the search timer is active; a value of 0 disables the check.

Note: Any Epoch value can be supplied. Thus, providing a time within a day (instead of midnight) will keep the timer inactive until that intra-day time has been reached.

49 – Last day (use as search timer until)

Date and time in Epoch encoding (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC) until which the search timer is active; a value of 0 disables the check.

Note: Any Epoch value can be supplied. Thus, providing a time within a day (instead of midnight) will keep the timer active until that intra-day time has been reached.

50 – Matching mode of extended EPG information

Enumeration with the following values:

51 – Unmute sound

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes; only considered if 'action' = 2 or 3.

52 – Minimum match in percent

Integer value from 1 to 100, specifying the minimum match required to avoid repeats when summaries are to be compared; only considered if 'compare summary' = 1.

53 – Content descriptors

String with content descriptors to be checked. Content descriptors are values from 0 to 255 (see DIN EN 300 468, Table 18), encoded as 2-digit hexadecimal numbers. The upper nibble (bits [7..4]) constitutes a content group, and the lower nibble (bits [3..0]) represents a distinct descriptor within that group. A group's first descriptor with a value of 0 usually is a general classification of that group (like 0x10 = movie, drama), whereas values 1..15 provide a subordinate, finer classification (like 0x11 = detective, thriller; 0x14 = comedy). But since content group 11 (special characteristics) does not comply to this scheme (as can be seen from 0xB0 = original language; 0xB1 = black & white), a distinct matching mode for its descriptors is available.

The content descriptors to be checked are the concatenation of their 2-digit hexadecimal values without separators.

Example: Content identifiers 17 (detective, thriller), 20 (comedy) and 176 (original language) are encoded as '1114B0'.

The settings of fields 55 (content categories) and 56 (special characteristics) determine the conditions for an event to match the selected content descriptors.

Leave empty for not taking content descriptors into account.

54 – Compare date (when testing for repeats)

Enumeration with the values 0 = no, 1 = same day, 2 = same week, 3 = same month.

55 – Matching mode of content categories

Enumeration with the following values:

56 – Matching mode of special characteristics

Enumeration with values 0 = all selected descriptors, 1 = any selected descriptor; only considered if 'content descriptors' is not empty.

57 – Use parental rating

Flag with values 0 = no, 1 = yes.

58 – Minimum parental rating

Integer value from 0 to 18.

59 – Maximum parental rating

Integer value from 0 to 18.

A search timer's entry is considered valid if covers at least the first 11 fields.

The fields ("parameters") of a search timer are separated by ':' characters. Thus, a ':' character in strings, like the search term or the directory, will be encoded as '|' character. If a '|' character should be part of the string as well, like in regular expressions, it will be encoded as '!^pipe^!' (which is rather ugly but required for backward compatibility).

Fields depending on another field and being void due to that field's setting can (and actually should) be left empty. For instance, a search timer not having a time constraint can leave the fields 'start after' and 'start before' empty:

    1:My favorite series: 0::: 0::0:0
                          ^^^^

Furthermore, leading and trailing whitespace around a field value is discarded. This implies, however, that strings cannot start or end with whitespace.

Note: Strings within fields must not be enclosed in quotations marks or apostrophes, even if this should be indicated in a field's description. These characters have just been inserted during compilation of this man page.

See also epgsearch.conf(5).

3. Description of the search process¶

First, a temporary search text is created for each broadcast, in which title, subtitle and description are separated by '~' characters:

    title~subtitle~description

Depending on the settings of 'use title', 'use subtitle' and 'use description', these components are either inserted or remain empty.

If 'match case' has not been set, the search text and the search term are transformed into lowercase.

Depending on the search mode, the search term will then be looked up in the search text:

Phrase

Matches if the search term is found anywhere in the search text.

All words

At least one word

First, the search term will be split into single words; delimiters are spaces and one of the ',;|~' characters. Second, the search succeeds if at least one word, or all words, appear in the search text.

Match exactly

Matches if search term and search text are identical.

Regular expression

The search is performed with a regular expression. Two standards are supported: extended POSIX and Perl compatible regular expressions (PCRE) (see INSTALL).

Note: Unlike in Perl, leading and trailing '/' characters are not required for the search term.

Fuzzy

Compares the search term based upon the Levenshtein-Distance algorithm. The value of the field 'fuzzy tolerance' determines how much deviation is acceptable.

Note: The search term is limited to 32 characters when using the fuzzy mode.

If the search was successful so far, the other criteria (start time, duration, weekday, etc.) are checked.

4. How do search timers work?¶

With each update, the plugin first sorts the search timers by timer priority (descending) and search term, before it searches for new matches of search timers. If a new match is found, a new timer will be created.

For series recordings, the subtitle is appended to the recording directory. Many providers deliver the subtitle just a few days before the event. If unavailable, the plugin temporarily uses date and time for the subtitle but replaces them once the subtitle has become available.

Start and stop times of broadcasts often vary slightly. To avoid many different timers for the same event, the plugin checks whether another timer's start and stop times only differ by a maximum of 10 minutes; if an event's duration is less than 10 minutes, the durations will be compared instead.

If a match is found, a present timer will be modified, else a new timer will be created; inactive timers will not be updated. Furthermore, manually adapted priority or lifetime settings will not be changed upon updates.

If 'action' was set to a variant of 'announce (no timer)', no timer will be created. Instead, a notification about the event will be issued: An OSD message will be displayed upon each scan, but only if there was no previous timer for the event. An e-mail will be sent according to the schedule configured if timers have been created or changed.

5. How to trigger a search-timer update?¶

The update of search timers runs in a thread of its own. An update can be triggered in several ways:

Periodically

The search timers will be updated a few seconds after the VDR has started. Once finished, the setup option 'Update interval [min]' determines in which intervals future updates shall be done.

Externally

The thread observes the file '.epgsearchupdate' in the plugin's configuration directory. After executing:

    touch /path_to_file/.epgsearchupdate

Internally

Calling 'Actions' » 'Trigger search timer update' or pressing 3 in the menu 'Search entries' will also trigger an update.

By other plugins

The service 'Epgsearch-updatesearchtimers-v1.0' can be used with the VDR's service interface by other plugins. The caller can request an OSD notification when the update has been finished.

6. The sources of the 'Select directory' menu¶

This menu displays directories that can be used for both search timers and ordinary timers. The items displayed are collected from the following sources:

• current recording directories
• current timer directories
• directories used in search timers
• directories specified in epgsearchdirs.conf, see epgsearchdirs.conf(5)
• entries in the VDR's folders.conf

The menu merges these directories and displays only distinct directories. The key 'yellow' allows changing the level of the directories shown. Should there be items containing EPG category variables like '%Genre%', these entries are always shown before other directories. They also do not depend on the level, but are always shown with their full directory path.

If this menu is called from the timer-edit menu and the selected item already contains the variables '%Title%' or %Subtitle, the timer's 'File' entry gets cleared, since title or subtitle already included in the 'Directory' item.

This list can also be accessed via the SVDRP command 'LSRD'.

7. Language-dependent commands for the EPG¶

If you like to have a language-dependent list of commands, simply translate your present epgsearchcmds.conf to your preferred OSD language and store it with the filename epgsearchcmds-<LOC>.conf, where <LOC> is the locale's 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"
      // see the source file
      // for the complete list
    }

If more codes are listed for a language, like 'eng,dos', choose one of them.

If a file corresponding to the VDR's OSD language is available, it will be loaded. If no such file exists, the system will attempt to load the epgsearchcmds.conf file instead.

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:

    Search=the search term
    SearchMode=x  // 0 = phrase, 1 = all (default), 2 = single, 3 = exactly, 4 = regex
    ChannelNr=x   // searches on a specific channel, if present
    UseTitle=x    // 1 (default) or 0
    UseSubtitle=x // 1 (default) or 0
    UseDescr=x    // 1 (default) or 0

    svdrpsend HITK green

9. The SVDRP interface¶

EPGSearch implements an SVDRP interface that can be accessed like this:

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch LSTS

The following sections describe the commands available at the SVDRP interface.

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch NEWS "0:Sample search:::::::::"
    220 HostName SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder 2.7.7; ...
    900 search 'Sample search' (with new ID 6) added
    221 HostName closing connection

    timer    : // 1 = create new timer
    channel  : // channel number in VDR's channel list
    date     : // date on which the event starts [YYYY-MM-DD]
    begin    : // start time of the event [HHMM]
    end      : // stop  time of the event [HHMM]
    priority : // priority for recording
    lifetime : // lifetime for recording
    file     : // timer file

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch FIND "0:The Rookie:::::::::"
    220 HostName SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder 2.7.7; ...
    900-NEWT 1:39:2025-08-07:1753:1845:50:99:The Rookie:
    221 HostName closing connection

    search   : // unique identifier of the corresponding search
    event    : // unique identifier of the event within the VDR's schedules
    title    : // event title, with C<:> characters converted to C<|>
    subtitle : // event subtitle, with C<:> characters converted to C<|>
    begin    : // event start in Epoch encoding (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC)
    end      : // event stop  as Epoch encoding (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC)
    channel  : // channel ID in VDR's internal representation (e.g., S19.2E-1-1101-28106)
    start    : // timer start in Epoch encoding; only valid if 'timer' > 0
    stop     : // timer stop  in Epoch encoding; only valid if 'timer' > 0
    file         : // timer file; only valid if 'timer' > 0
    timer    : // 0 = no timer, 1 = active timer, ... (VDR timer flags)

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch QRYS 0
    220 HostName SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder 2.7.7; ...
    900-0:3124:The Rookie:Heartbreak:1756901400:1756903800:S19.2E-1-1011-11130:1756901280:1756904400:The Rookie~Heartbreak:1
    221 HostName closing connection

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch NEWB "0:Sample blacklist:::::::::::::::::"
    220 HostName SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder 2.7.7; ...
    900 blacklist 'Sample blacklist' (with new ID 3) added
    221 HostName closing connection

    svdrpsend PLUG epgsearch NEWT "0:Sample template:::::::::"
    220 HostName SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder 2.7.7; ...
    900 search template 'Sample template' (with new ID 4) added
    221 HostName closing connection

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

10. Customizing the EPG menus¶

The file epgsearchmenu.conf in the EPGSearch configuration directory stores the settings for customizing the EPG menus. Each line configures the display of a certain menu. The entries specify the layouts for the following menus:

MenuWhatsOnNow

Template for the menu 'Now'.

MenuWhatsOnNext

Template for the menu 'Next'.

MenuWhatsOnElse

Template for the menu of a user-defined time.

MenuSchedule

Template for the menu 'Schedule'.

MenuSearchResults

Template for the menu 'Search results'.

MenuFavorites

Template for the menu 'Favorites'.

For example:

    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

The entry 'MenuWhatsOnNow' instructs EPGSearch how to format a line for the menu 'Now': The menu's line will start with the channel number, followed by a progress bar in text2skin style, a single space, the start time, the timer status, the value of the EPG category named 'Category' (e.g., "Movie") and, finally, the title and subtitle.

The values for 'MenuWhatsOnNext', 'MenuWhatsOnElse', 'MenuSchedule', 'MenuSearchResults' and 'MenuFavorites' specify the menu settings for 'Next', the menu of a user-defined time, 'Schedule', 'Search results', and 'Favorites', respectively. Without a corresponding entry, EPGSearch uses a menu's default layout.

The entry 'MenuSearchResults' has a special feature: If different layouts for search results are desired depending on the search, more than one menu template can be provided. For example, suppose the following entry gets added:

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

This will result in an additional menu item 'Result menu layout' in the menu 'Edit search' that allows choosing between the menu's default template and own templates. For the example above, 'Tip of the Day' will be listed as additional option, since EPGSearch simply strips the prefix 'MenuSearchResults'. When displaying the search results, the chosen layout will be used instead of the default one.

The following variables exist (case ignored):

%Time%

An event's start time in 'HH:MM' format.

%TimeEnd%

An event's end time in 'HH:MM' format.

%Time_D%

An event's start date in 'DD' format.

%Time_W%

Name of the weekday on which an event starts.

%Time_Lng%

An event's start date and time in Epoch encoding (i.e., seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC).

%TimeSpan%

Time span til the start of an event (like 'in 15m') or the time an event is already running (like '10m').

%Date%

An event's start date in 'DD.MM.YY' format.

%DateSh%

An event's start date in 'DD.MM' format.

%Date_ISO%

An event's start date in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format.

%Day%

An event's start day (1..31).

%Week%

Calendar week of an event's start date (01..53).

According to the ISO 8601 standard, Monday is the first day of a week. Calendar week 1 is the first week where four or more days fall within the new year, that is, the first week that contains a Thursday or has January 4 in it.

%Month%

An event's start month (1..12).

%Year%

An event's start year (1970..2038, or even later).

%EventID%

An event's numeric identifier.

%LiveEventID%

An event's identifier as used in the front end live.

%Title%

An event's title.

%Subtitle%

An event's subtitle.

%Summary%

An event's summary.

%HtmlSummary%

An event's summary with all line feeds replaced by '<br />'.

Caution: The HTML reserved characters '<&">' will not be replaced by their substitutes '&lt;', '&amp;', '&quot;' and '&gt;'.

%<EPG Category>%

An event's value of the respective EPG category as specified in epgsearchcats.conf, like '%Genre%' or '%Category%'.

%Length%

An event's length in seconds.

%Status%

An event's status (the same as '%T_Status%%V_Status%%R_Status%').

%T_Status%

A timer's status ('T', 't', or 'R'), else a space.

%V_Status%

An event's VPS status, else a space.

%R_Status%

An event's running status, else a space.

For the menus of user-defined times and the menu 'Search results', there are also:

%ChNr%

An event's channel number.

%ChSh%

The short name of an event's channel.

%ChLng%

The long name of an event's channel.

%ChData%

The VDR's internal channel representation (e.g., 'S19.2E-1-1101-28106').

%Progr%

A graphical progress bar; not available for the menu 'Search results'. The VDRSymbols font must be installed to display it.

%ProgrT2S%

A progress bar in text2skin style; not available for the menu 'Search results'.

And, finally, some common variables:

%TimeNow%

The current time in 'HH:MM' format.

%DateNow%

The current date in 'DD.MM.YY' format.

%DateShNow%

The current date in 'DD.MM' format.

%Date_ISO_Now%

The current date in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format.

%VideoDir%

The VDR's video directory (e.g., /video).

%PlugConfDir%

The VDR's plugin configuration directory (e.g., /etc/vdr/plugins).

%EPGSearchDir%

The EPGSearch configuration directory (e.g., /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch)

%Colon%

The ':' character.

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

An entry consists of up to six table columns, separated with '|' characters. The last entry of each table row should declare the table width in characters, separated with a ':' character.

When using characters like '~', '-' or '#' to separate items (e.g., '%Title% ~ %Subtitle%') with trailing elements being empty, EPGSearch will attempt to remove orphaned spaces and separators.

You should vary the tabulation-width values to fit your needs, since the look often depends on the selected skin.

The file epgsearchmenu.conf is not reloaded with every plugin call, since this is only useful when testing the configuration file itself. To activate permanent reloading the file during testing a configuration change, add the start parameter '−r' or '−−reloadmenuconf' in the VDR's start script (e.g., runvdr).

There's a sample epgsearchmenu.conf in the subdirectory conf. To quickly trying out, copy the file to the EPGSearch configuration directory (e.g., /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch).

To enable icons from the font VDRSymbols, simply put the line:

    WarEagleIcons=1

into epgsearchmenu.conf. The font VDRSymbols is available at <http://andreas.vdr-developer.org/fonts/download.html>.

Note: Once a file epgsearchmenu.conf is present and includes an entry for a certain menu, the default settings for displaying this menu are ignored.

See also epgsearchmenu.conf(5).

11. Working with the timer-conflict menu¶

If a conflict is detected within the periodic background conflict check, an an OSD message will notify about this conflict. Pressing 'OK' will raise a menu that displays all relevant conflicts. This menu can also be opened in EPGSearch navigating to 'Search entries' » 'Actions' » 'Timer conflict check'.

Besides the relevant conflicts (relevance is controlled via the setup options of EPGSearch), conflicts not classified as important may have been detected as well. Pressing 'Show all' will display the complete list. The title of the timer-conflict menu will always displays the number of relevant conflicts and the total number.

The list first displays the time when a conflict appears, followed by all timers that will be affected. Each timer entry includes the channel number and name, the timer's priority, and the percentage of how much of the event will be recorded. Finally, the timer's file entry is displayed.

Selecting a timer's entry and pressing 'OK' or invoking 'Details' opens a new menu that displays all concurrent timers. This menu allows resolving the conflict by:

• searching for the repeat of an event
• disabling or deleting a timer
• changing the timers' start or stop time, or alternatively its priority
• executing other commands on this timer

An entry of this menu consists of the '>' character to indicate an active timer, the channel number, the start and stop times, the priority, the number of the device that will be used for recording (or 'C' for a conflict) and the timer's file entry. Pressing 'OK' on a timer entry will show its event description, if present.

When returning from this menu, the conflict-overview menu will be updated to see if a conflict was really resolved. Some changes of a timer in the conflict-details menu (like modifying start/stop times or deleting a timer) will also bring up the updated conflict-overview menu.

Note: A "hidden" setup option 'ConflCheckCmd' allows executing a command for each timer causing a conflict. This command must directly be entered in the VDR's setup.conf like this:

    epgsearch.ConflCheckCmd = system(your_script_handling_the_conflict.sh, any_arguments like %Timer.File%)

The command is evaluated for each timer causing a conflict whenever an automatic conflict check is performed. The command will not be evaluated when invoking the conflict check though the OSD.

As an example for its purpose, this mechanism could be employed for forwarding a timer to another VDR machine in case of a conflict.

12. User-defined variables¶

Own variables can be used wherever variables are supported, like the default recording directory for manually created timers, the recording directory of a search timer, or in customized EPG menus. They are defined in the file epgsearchuservars.conf.

A variable has the syntax '%VariableName%'. Its name can comprise all alphanumeric characters, but no spaces or other special characters.

Examples for possible names:

    %Series%
    %DocuVar1%
    %ThemesSubtitleDate%

Variable names are case-insensitive.

    %Series%=New series~Thrillers

    %Path%=%Series%

    %Path%=%Series%~Lost

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

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

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

    %UserVar%=system(<script-name>[, <parameters>])

    %Result%=system(/usr/local/bin/my-script.sh, -t %Title% -s %Subtitle% -u %MyOtherVar%)

    %Result%=connect(<address>, <port>, [<data>])

    %Result%=length(<any arguments>)

    %TitleLength%=length(%title%)

    # Weekday, Date, Time
    %DateStr%=%time_w% %date% %time%
    # Themes or Subtitle or Date
    %SubtitleDate%=%Subtitle% ? %Subtitle% : %DateStr%
    %ThemesSubtitleDate%=%Themes% ? %Themes% : %SubtitleDate%
    # Calls a script to get a recording path
    %DocuScript%=system(docu.pl, -t %Title% -s %Subtitle% -e %Episode% -th %Themes% -c %Category% -g %Genre%)
    %Docu%=%DocuScript%

13. E-mail notifications¶

EPGSearch can send e-mail notifications when timers get added, modified, or removed by the search-timer thread, or when timer conflicts have been detected.

14. The conf.d directory¶

EPGSearch supports a configuration mechanism well-known in Linux. This applies to the settings of the following configuration files:

• epgsearchuservars.conf
• epgsearchdirs.conf
• epgsearchmenu.conf
• epgsearchcats.conf

Their settings also be provided by a single file with arbitrary name in the subdirectory conf.d in the plugin's configuration directory (e.g., /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch/conf.d). This allows quickly testing different setups by just exchanging files instead of editing them. The format of files within conf.d is:

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

A 'section name' is one of the following keywords:

• epgsearchuservars
• epgsearchdirs
• epgsearchmenu
• epgsearchcats

The format of 'settings' is the same as in the corresponding configuration file. Comments beginning with a '#' character and blank lines are both allowed.

At startup, EPGSearch first reads its "regular" configuration files and then inspects the conf.d subdirectory. Variables already defined in other files can be overwritten, although this is signaled with a warning in the EPGSearch log file.

AUTOREN (Man-Pages)¶

Ursprünglich erstellt von Mike Constabel <epgsearch (at) constabel (dot) net>.

Überarbeitet und an die aktuellen Features von EPGSearch adaptiert durch die derzeitigen Maintainer.

PROJEKTSEITE¶

Das Plugin wird als Projekt auf GitHub geführt:

<https://github.com/vdr-projects/vdr-plugin-epgsearch/>

FEHLER MELDEN¶

Fehlerberichte sowie Feature-Anfragen können über den Bugtracker des Projekts eingespeist werden:

<https://github.com/vdr-projects/vdr-plugin-epgsearch/issues/>

COPYRIGHT und LIZENZ¶

Copyright © 2004-2010 Christian Wieninger

Copyright © 2011-2025 TomJoad (VDR-Portal) et al.

Dieses Programm ist freie Software. Sie können es unter den Bedingungen der GNU General Public License, wie von der Free Software Foundation veröffentlicht, weitergeben und/oder modifizieren, entweder gemäß Version 2 der Lizenz oder (nach Ihrer Option) jeder späteren Version.

Die Veröffentlichung dieses Programms erfolgt in der Hoffnung, dass es Ihnen von Nutzen sein wird, aber OHNE IRGENDEINE GARANTIE, sogar ohne die implizite Garantie der MARKTREIFE oder der VERWENDBARKEIT FÜR EINEN BESTIMMTEN ZWECK. Details finden Sie in der GNU General Public License.

Sie sollten ein Exemplar der GNU General Public License zusammen mit diesem Programm erhalten haben. Falls nicht, schreiben Sie an die Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Oder rufen Sie in Ihrem Browser <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html> auf.

Der ursprüngliche Autor kann über cwieninger@gmx.de erreicht werden.

Die aktuellen Maintainer können über die Projektseite auf GitHub (siehe oben) erreicht werden.

Der MD5-Code ist abgeleitet aus dem Message-Digest-Algorithmus MD5 von RSA Data Security, Inc.

SIEHE AUCH¶

epgsearch(1), epgsearchblacklists.conf(5), epgsearchcats.conf(5), epgsearchchangrps.conf(5), epgsearchcmds.conf(5), epgsearchdirs.conf(5), epgsearchdone.data(5), epgsearchmenu.conf(5), epgsearchswitchtimer.conf(5), epgsearchuservars.conf(5)