Alfred with Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC).

[optimus1509]

Hi,

 

I am using Carbon Copy Cloner to create backups via predefined tasks. These tasks define the source, destination, backup frequency etc. Can someone help me with a workflow that can be triggered using a keyword for alfred to return all Carbon Copy Cloner tasks. I can then select form the list and ccc will trigger/initiate the corresponding task.

 

FWIW, Carbon Copy Cloner has a CLI utility for eg.: running 'ccc -p' in iterm gives me the tasks list and the schedule. My main challenge is returning the task list to alfred to then select from the list. I tried using the script filter but don't know how to create the results JSON. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[optimus1509]

Anyone?

[optimus1509]

Folks, any tips on this please?

[Vero]

@optimus1509 Rather than just bump the thread every few days, share what you have so far for the script filter, as this will be a better starting point for someone to point you in the right direction.

 

As there may not be many CCC users on the forum, share as much information as you can. For example, what's the output of the command "ccc -p" in Terminal, etc...

 

The more information you provide, and the more legwork you do towards getting the CCC part of your workflow working, the easier it'll be for others to help you out

 

Cheers,
Vero

[optimus1509]

@VeroThe script filter i have simply runs this:

 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i | awk -F"|" '{print $1}'

 

In the terminal, the output of the above is simply a newline-separated list of just the task names in CCC as shown below.

 

Task 1

Task 2

...

..

Task n

 

Unfortuntely, i am not well versed with python, JSON etc. so i don't know how to pass the results back to alfred. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Edited July 28 by optimus1509
corrected for missing quote.

[alfred_jon]

Hi optimus1509,

I'd like to get this going as well. Not a lot of coding experience here but did you get any further?

I couldn't get your command line to work above. it just returns

pipe dquote>

But, I do know that the tasks are listed in /Library/Application Support/com.bombich.ccc/MetaData.db
I can read mine with a sqlite reading program. See screenshot

[deanishe]

3 hours ago, alfred_jon said:

I couldn't get your command line to work above.

 

The command isn't correct. There's a double quote missing at the beginning.

 

[optimus1509]

Thanks @deanishe I edited my post to include the correction.

 

I couldn’t get this working as i am not well versed with how to create Alfred results from the output of  - 

 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i | awk -F"|" '{print $1}'

 

above gives the tasks list currently setup in CCC5. One task per line.

 

Maybe @deanishecan help us with this? Thanks.

[deanishe]

9 hours ago, optimus1509 said:

Maybe @deanishecan help us with this?

 

With showing the list in Alfred, sure, but not with making CCC do anything with them because I don't have the software.

 

If one of you can post the CCC command-line command to start a backup given its name, I can wire it all together for you.

 

Also please post the full output of this command: "/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i (without the awk etc.)

 

Feel free to anonymise task names: it's the structure that I need to know.

Edited July 28 by deanishe

[optimus1509]

Thanks for offering to help @deanishe much appreciated.

 

The CCC command-line command to start a backup is - 

 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -s"Task Name"

 

Above "Task Name" is one of many backup tasks configured in CCC5.

 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i

 

The output of the above is new-line separate tasks along with their status (pipe separated) as per below - 

 

Task 1|stopped
Task 2|stopped
Task 3|stopped

 

if a task is running there may be additional "|" separated statuses as per below - 

 

Task 1|running|-1.000000|0|Testing write responsiveness of the destination...|

Task 2|stopped
Task 3|stopped

Task 4|running|4.494382|0|Initializing file copier…|

 

For more information please refer to this link. Thanks in advance.

[alfred_jon]

OK, cool. Some progress.

What I don't know how to do is to return the output of 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i | awk -F"|" '{print $1}'

to Alfred so that it could be selected by Command+1, Command+2 etc.

I presume the result needs to be formatted into JSON?

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, alfred_jon said:

I presume the result needs to be formatted into JSON?

 

Yes.

[deanishe]

Here's a workflow that should show your Carbon Copy Cloner tasks in Alfred. It works with the sample input you gave me.

[optimus1509]

Awesome @deanishe. Thanks for your help. It works perfectly.

[alfred_jon]

@optimus1509 - is this working for you? Does it show you your tasks or does it launch them as well?
On my laptop I get an option to show CCC tasks but hitting return on it shows me nothing. See screencast here;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wil95akb8r8js9q/ccc.mov?dl=0

 

 

[deanishe]

5 hours ago, alfred_jon said:

See screencast here

 

I can't tell you anything from that video. Use Alfred's workflow debugger to see what's actually going on.

[optimus1509]

@alfred_jon It works perfectly for me (i.e. show me the tasks lists and i can execute them with enter) and the workflow debugger has no errors. Are you getting any output at all when you type this in terminal?

 

"/Applications/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc" -i

 

Above should show you the tasks and their statuses.

[alfred_jon]

Hi,

Ok, looks like I have an issue with the Python install on my computer.

[14:58:43.247] Carbon Copy Cloner[Script Filter] Queuing argument '(null)'
[14:58:43.510] Carbon Copy Cloner[Script Filter] Script with argv '(null)' finished
[14:58:43.513] ERROR: Carbon Copy Cloner[Script Filter] Code 127: /Users/jon/Library/Caches/com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred/Workflow Scripts/7651A74B-8CD2-4780-AE5B-AFA4E9A846E6:1: ./parse.py: bad interpreter: /usr/bin/python3: no such file or directory

 

I'll have to have a look into this.

[deanishe]

Oh right. I think you need to install the command-line developer tools. Try running /usr/bin/python3 or /usr/bin/git in Terminal.app. macOS should ask you if you’d like to install the devtools.