[Xastir] Xastir control API?

[Tom Russo]

On Wed, Aug 08, 2012 at 11:04:25AM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <russo at bogodyn.org> flavor, containing:
> On Wed, Aug 08, 2012 at 08:47:16AM -0700, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <xastir at trinnet.net> flavor, containing:
> > Hello Xastir users,
> > 
> > I normally leave my sole home radio running packet on 145.050 here in 
> > Northern California but it would be nice to get back to APRS. Now that 
> > Hamlib has Kenwood D710 support (minimal but it does work), I'm looking 
> > to expand what I can do. What I'm thinking is setting up sort of time 
> > sharing system where I can QSY the radio and then inform the various 
> > software systems to go do their thing.
> > 
> >    Question:  Is there a way to send a signal to Xastir from an external 
> > shell script, whatever to tell it to send an APRS beacon?
> 
> There is no such interface to Xastir that would allow an external program
> to trigger a beacon.
> 
> That's not to say one couldn't add such a feature, but it's not there now.
> It is probably pretty easy to add a signal handler to do this.

It was easy enough that Tom Hayward provided a patch to do just that.  It is
now committed in Xastir CVS, and you can get the updated code with a cvs update.

Setting the Posit TX Interval to zero in the File->Configure->Timing dialog
will stop Xastir from doing any timed beacons at all.  Sending a USR2 signal
to Xastir will cause it to beacon immediately (whether it's doing timed
beacons or not).

Thanks, Tom.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick