12-hour-server

a python script to put the home "server" to sleep when wifi is disconnected at night, and wake up early the next day

Note: This script will only run on Linux (more specifically, tested on Ubuntu/Debian). WILL NOT RUN ON WINDOWS

What does this script do?

if you have an old computer/laptop you use as your home server, but don't quite want it to run 24x7, but rather only when your internet (router) is active.

In other words:

• Computer should go to sleep when you turn off your router
• Computer should wake up when you turn on your internet router

This is what this program does.

How to use it?

---

• Clone the repository
• Make a file config.yaml whose contents should be same as in config[TEMPLATE].yaml:

  # wired, wireless, any: connection type you want the program to check for internet connectivity
  connection type: any
  
  # Provide time in 24hr format
  night phase:
    start time: 23:20
    end time: 23:40
    # this timeout will be used as the frequency to check internet connectivity
    timeout: 7 # seconds
  morning phase:
    start time: 8:30
    end time: 10:30
    # this timeout will be used as the frequency to check internet connectivity
    timeout: 300 # seconds
  
  # This timeout will be used to change the default timeout.
  timeout: 90
  
  # connectivity function *optional, by default uses v2
  # you probably don't even need this in your config. Refer advanced usage
  connectivity_method: 'v2' # one of 'v2', 'v3', 'v2+v3'
  
  # If this key is present, program's thread would periodically wake up, check phases again and set a backup wake timer
  # of this interval (or less).
  sleep_interval: 1800 # seconds
  
  logging level: 10 # 10 for DEBUG, 20 for INFO, 30 for WARNING, 40 for ERROR, 50 for CRITICAL logging level
  
  # Optional
  telegram:
    BOT_TOKEN: YOUR TOKEN HERE
    CHAT_ID: YOUR CHAT ID HERE
  

• Install requirements.txt: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Run ./smart_sleep.py from repository root. Make sure you have python3.8+
  Note: Program will run as [sudo] because the underlying command rtcwake which sets waketimers needs [sudo] to run

Viewing logs

The program creates 2 log files. one containing the normal logs (logs.log), and the other containing the ANSI color codes (logs_color.log) If you want to see the logs of this program by ssh-ing into the server computer, then there are 2 ways for that:

1. [To view logs with color] less -R +F Path_to_repository_root/logs/logs_color.log
2. [To view plain logs without color] tail -f Path_to_repository_root/logs/logs.log

Reporting Issues:

I haven't polished the program and fixed every bug because i needed this script to be made fast according to my needs. If you encounter any bugs, feel free to open an issue or a pull request.

Disclaimer to *Potential* Contributors: This script is unnecessarily long and i apologise for that

Advanced Usage

Connectivity methods

up until release v1.1.0-lw, the program used a method called check_connected_to_internetV2. This is the v2 method which checks for internet connectivity by polling carrier & operstate in directory /sys/class/<your network device name>/

Since i moved onto a complex network setup involving a secondary router that acts as a DHCP relay, operstate & carrier both showed up/1 as their output. even if the main router was down and the device had no IP address assigned to it.

So to make the script work, the v3 method (check_connected_to_internetV3), now pings the default gateway to check if main router is still up or not.

You'd be fine with using connectivity_method as v2 as long as the device connects to the main router. Or, you can switch to using the ping method by setting connectivity_method to v3 if you want that. at the time of writing, haven't put the ping method to much irl use and the v2 method works just as fine.

update: 6 months in running the script on a daily basis, v3 works flawlessly. so you can use any.

Known issue:

• the timings are right, but the date could be off. since im using timedelta instead of time or datetime. too far into the project, not gonna bother changing it until i get an issue or pull request about it ¯_(ツ)_/¯