Show HN: Mail me when the output of a command changes | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Mail me when the output of a command changes

github.com

4 pointszwischenzug3 comments

That is way over-engineered for something that could be done with a 10 lines of bash:

    diff2mail() {
        a=$($@)
        while true; do
            b=$($@)
            if [ "$a" != "$b" ]; then
                echo "$a -> $b" | mail -s "$@ changed" 'root@example.com'
                return
            fi
            sleep 1
        done
    }

    diff2mail ls /tmp

And for a lot of stuff it's even shorter than that:

    make && x="is done" || x="has failed"; echo "build $x" | mail root

Did you actually read the README?

Yes; together with the actual code, weird concept of "COMMON WORDS THRESHOLD PERCENT" (original author's capitalization), and a cursory look across imported library by the same author and its scant documentation.

Is there something in particular, apart from generous amounts of gratuitous complexity, that you would like to point reader's attention at?

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