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grahamb · Feb 13, 2003, 03:22 PM

Does anyone know if it is possible to call QuickTime from within the CLI?

Some background on what I'm trying to do:

We use five Axis 2100 network cameras at work to serve as security cameras. The cameras have an embedded linux server and ftp their images to an OS X server every 10 seconds.

I'd like to be able to create a time-lapse QuickTime movie of all the images from a given camera over the course of a day. I've been able to AppleScript this using QuickTime Pro's Image Sequence feature. The problem is that the OS X Server box where the images reside is running headless with no user logged in graphically in the server room on the other end of campus. My AppleScript won't run when there's no user logged in to the GUI; it gets an error from the WindowServer.

So, is there any way that I can accomplish this strictly from the CLI? Doesn't necessairly have to be using QuickTime. My only other option is to make a tarball of the day's files, copy the over to a machine in my office, complie the movies and then move the movies back to the server, but I think the network guys might object to 2gb of traffic each way going back and forth.

clarkgoble · Feb 13, 2003, 04:36 PM

I think that Apple's Quicktime code depends upon a user being logged in.

Having said that you can use various Linux tools that are ported to OSX. They won't be in native Quicktime (no Sorenson Codec) but will be in a format Quicktime can read.

I'd suggest going to SourceForge.org and see what they have there. Checkout Freshmeat.org as well. Most Linux software runs on OSX as well. (Some require X11 to configure though)

Arkham_c · Feb 14, 2003, 12:51 PM

You could certainly do it. Doing it using Apple's software though will not work. You'll either have to find an app that will do this for you without opening any windows, or write one yourself with Realbasic (which is pretty easy to do -- it has a nice Quicktime API interface, and I've run RB apps as root with nobody logged in on OSX, so I know it works).

grahamb · Feb 14, 2003, 03:22 PM

You could certainly do it. Doing it using Apple's software though will not work. You'll either have to find an app that will do this for you without opening any windows, or write one yourself with Realbasic (which is pretty easy to do -- it has a nice Quicktime API interface, and I've run RB apps as root with nobody logged in on OSX, so I know it works).

Any pointers or advice on doing this? I've never used RB, but I'm willing to give it a try. Also, does the app need to run as root? I don't root access to the server in question.

grahamb · Feb 18, 2003, 07:21 PM

*Bump*

Anyone??

bluedog · Feb 18, 2003, 07:42 PM

If its not too much of a security risk, create a user and have the server automatically login as that user (bypass the login window).

That should get you up and running, then you can 'su' from an ssh session to do your work with the applescript.

I think this should work for you.

grahamb · Feb 19, 2003, 12:05 PM

If its not too much of a security risk, create a user and have the server automatically login as that user (bypass the login window).

It's not my server, so I can't do that.

That should get you up and running, then you can 'su' from an ssh session to do your work with the applescript.

The script doesn't seem to work via ssh. I can run it fine when I'm logged in locally, but not via ssh. Besides, the idea is to have this run automatically via cron, without user intervention. Getting up at 2am to ssh in doesn't sound fun

Thanks for the help, though. It would be nice if this would 'just work.'