timer Starts a timer
Usage
timer [-s] [-p] (<name>,<delay_in_msecs>[,<callback_param1>[,<callback_param2>[,...]]]) { <callback_command> }
Description
Starts a new timer named <name> with the specified delay (in milliseconds). The timer periodically calls the specified <callback_command> code passing the eventual <callback_param> strings as positional parameters. If a timer with the same name already exists, it is replaced by this one. The <callback_command> is evaluated at timer shot time and not while this command is being parsed. This means that the identifiers that you put inside <callback_command> will not have the current values. The values will be assigned at timer shot time. This is a common scripters error and problem: if it is not clear, look at the examples below. The timer is bound to the window in that this command is executed in. If the window gets destroyed, the timer is stopped; unless the -p switch is used. The -p switch causes the timer to be persistent across the application and exists until the last window has been closed: it is basically rebound to another (random) window when the original window is destroyed. The -s switch causes this timer to trigger only once: it will be automatically destroyed after that. The time has an associated set of extended scope variables: the variables that begin with %: have their life extended to the whole life of the timer. Using a very low delay is a common method to perform some background processing: you basically split a huge job in small slices and execute them when the timer is triggered until you run out of slices. A delay of 0 will cause the timer to be called whenever KVIrc has some idle time to spend. On the other hand, remember that timers are precious resources: many timers running with a very low delay will cause KVIrc to slow down. Since all the KVIrc timers share the same namespace it is a good idea to use descriptive timer names: a timer named a is likely to be used by two or more scripts at once causing one (or both) of them to fail. A timer can be stopped at any time by using the killtimer command.
Switches
-s | --single-shot
Causes the timer to trigger only once (single shot timer)
-p | --persistent
Creates a persistent timer bound to any existing window
Examples
# Just a plain timer timer(test,1000){ echo "Hello!"; } # Now watch the timer running killtimer test # Single shot timer timer -s (test,1000){ echo "This will fire only once!"; } # The call above is equivalent to timer(test,1000){ echo "This will file only once!"; killtimer test; } # Callback parameters: consider the following code %parameter = "some string value" echo "Before calling /timer \%parameter is \"%parameter\"" timer -s (test,1000,%parameter){ echo "inside the callback \%parameter is \"%parameter\" but \$0 is \"$0\""; } # watch the timer running, and note the behaviour of the %parameter variable killtimer test # Use the extended scope timer variables timer(test,1000) { # Use the extended scope %:count variable to keep track # of the times that this timer has been called if("%:count" == "")%:count = 1 else %:count++ echo "This timer has fired %:count times" if(%:count == 10) { # This will kill the current timer, we don't need to specify the name killtimer } } # Use isTimer to check if the timer exists echo $istimer(test) # Repeat the command above after the 10th timeout...
# Execute a command at a precise time %secsfrom= $($date("H")*3600+$date("M")*60+$date("S")); #now %secsto= $(7*3600+10*60+0); #end time: 07:10:00 %secsdiff=$(%secsto-%secsfrom); #difference if(%secsdiff <= 0) { #we're past that time for today %secsdiff+=86400; #60 secs * 60 mins * 24 hours } # timer wants msecs %msecs = $(%secsdiff*1000); timer -s -p (reminder, %msecs) { echo "Hey man it's ten past seven am, time to wake up!" }
See also
killtimer

Index, Commands