Tasks 1.0.1

Runs your own scripts on the NAS - at boot, on a schedule, when the NAS shuts down or restarts, or only when you click Run now - set up on its page in the NAS dashboard, with each task's last run, its output and an alert on your phone when it fails (through the ntfy app). It's this project's own app: nothing is downloaded, and it's the same for every model.

• A task is a name, a script typed on the page and when it runs. A shell script runs with the NAS's BusyBox sh; a script whose first line names another program (#!/opt/bin/python3, from Entware...) runs with that. Scripts run as root, in /, with Entware's programs (/opt/bin) found first, as in an SSH login. They get TASK_ID, TASK_NAME and TASK_REASON (boot, schedule, shutdown or manual). Exiting with a code other than 0 marks the run as failed.
• Schedules: every hour, day, week or month at a chosen time, or any cron schedule (minute, hour, day of the month, month, day of the week - numbers, *, ranges, lists and steps), in the NAS's time zone. They're kept in root's crontab and in WD's own list of cron jobs, which the firmware rewrites the crontab from every night (see cron_add in helpers.sh) - lines only added to the crontab are gone the next morning.
• At boot: once each time the NAS starts, when WD starts the app (after the apps before it), in the background and one after another - not when the app is switched on again or updated.
• At shutdown: when the NAS shuts down or restarts, as WD stops the app (it looks for WD's shutdown and reboot programs running - switching the app off, updating or removing it doesn't run them). Keep them short: the NAS doesn't wait long.
• Each run has a time limit (1 minute to a day; 30 minutes by default): a task that runs over it is stopped, with everything it started (it runs in its own process group). A task that's still running isn't started again (the skipped run is noted in the history). Running tasks can be stopped from the page.
• Its page lists the tasks, when each runs and how its last run went, with Run now / Stop, its output (the last run's, up to 256 KB), Change, Switch on / off and Remove, and the most recent runs. Switching the app off on WD's Apps page pauses every schedule (Run now still works).
• ntfy: with the ntfy app installed, set a topic on the page and choose, for each task, to be told when it fails, after every run, or never. The message has the end of its output.
• Two example tasks are added on the first install, switched off: a nightly copy of a share to a USB drive (rsync, never deleting) and an hourly check that fails when a volume is over 90% full - change their folders or limits and switch them on.
• Its data is kept next to the app, e.g. /mnt/HD/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/_tasks (root's only), and survives reinstalls and removal: tasks.json, the scripts (scripts/<id>.sh), each task's last run (status/), history.log (its last 1000 runs) and the ntfy topic.
• Not yet tried on the NAS: telling a shutdown from the app being switched off (WD's shutdown.sh / do_reboot / reboot processes are looked for).

Anyone who can change the tasks can run anything as root - as they can by installing an app. The page is for NAS admins only (see Management pages), and every change needs its CSRF token.

Management page

The Tasks page in the NAS dashboard (Apps → Tasks) adds, changes, runs, stops, switches on and off and removes tasks, shows their last runs and output and the recent runs, and sets the ntfy topic.