Utilities
File functions
Import them from astal
or astal/file
import {
readFile,
readFileAsync,
writeFile,
writeFileAsync,
monitorFile,
} from "astal"
Reading files
function readFile(path: string): string
function readFileAsync(path: string): Promise<string>
Writing files
function writeFile(path: string, content: string): void
function writeFileAsync(path: string, content: string): Promise<void>
Monitoring files
function monitorFile(
path: string,
callback: (file: string, event: Gio.FileMonitorEvent) => void,
): Gio.FileMonitor
Timeouts and Intervals
Import them from astal
or astal/time
import { interval, timeout, idle } from "astal"
You can use javascript native setTimeout
or setInterval
they return a GLib.Source instance. Alternatively you can use these functions provided by Astal, which return an Astal.Time instance.
Astal.Time
has a now
signal and a cancelled
signal.
Interval
Will immediately execute the function and every interval
millisecond.
function interval(interval: number, callback?: () => void): Astal.Time
Timeout
Will execute the callback
after timeout
millisecond.
function timeout(timeout: number, callback?: () => void): Astal.Time
Idle
Executes callback
whenever there are no higher priority events pending.
function idle(callback?: () => void): Astal.Time
Example:
const timer = interval(1000, () => {
console.log("optional callback")
})
timer.connect("now", () => {
console.log("tick")
})
timer.connect("cancelled", () => {
console.log("cancelled")
})
timer.cancel()
Process functions
Import them from astal
or astal/proc
import { subprocess, exec, execAsync } from "astal"
Subprocess
You can start a subprocess and run callback functions whenever it outputs to stdout or stderr. Astal.Process has a stdout
and stderr
signal.
function subprocess(args: {
cmd: string | string[]
out?: (stdout: string) => void
err?: (stderr: string) => void
}): Astal.Process
function subprocess(
cmd: string | string[],
onOut?: (stdout: string) => void,
onErr?: (stderr: string) => void,
): Astal.Process
Example:
const proc = subprocess(
"some-command",
(out) => console.log(out), // optional
(err) => console.error(out), // optional
)
// or with signals
const proc = subprocess("some-command")
proc.connect("stdout", (out) => console.log(out))
proc.connect("stderr", (err) => console.error(err))
Executing external commands and scripts
function exec(cmd: string | string[]): string
function execAsync(cmd: string | string[]): Promise<string>
Example:
try {
const out = exec("/path/to/script")
console.log(out)
} catch (err) {
console.error(err)
}
execAsync(["bash", "-c", "/path/to/script.sh"])
.then((out) => console.log(out))
.catch((err) => console.error(err))
WARNING
subprocess
, exec
, and execAsync
executes the passed executable as is. They are not executed in a shell environment, they do not expand env variables like $HOME
, and they do not handle logical operators like &&
and ||
.
If you want bash, run them with bash.
exec(["bash", "-c", "command $VAR && command"])
exec("bash -c 'command $VAR' && command")