Apple Script to dismiss UPS alert

AppleScript forum.

Haven't a clue, but this is the appropriate forum—I had the Hosts move it. Be patient and the experts will pop in and give you a solution.

I have two answers, one of which is scary.

scary one first (because it is more directly relevant to the problem, and easier)

there is a script located at /usr/libexec/upsshutdown. if you open this in TextWrangler or any other plain-text programmer's editor (do NOT use a rich text editor or an editor with a proprietary format schema like MS Word or Pages), you'll see at about line fifteen a line that says:

logger -i -p daemon.emerg -t UPS "${MSG}"

the -p daemon.emerg bit - so I'm guessing - sets the priority of the message to LOG_EMERG, which would basically broadcast it to everyone like a kernel panic. I think that's the source of your pop-up alert. I believe if you change that bit to read, for instance, -p LOG_WARNING or -p LOG_NOTICE, it will write the event to the system log but not present it as an alert. I have not tested this, so make sure to make a backup of the upsshutdown file before you edit it.

less scary one

If you install sleepwatcher (available here) you can run scripts at system startup - that would make it conceivably possible to test for and dismiss a modal window that onscreen at startup. that would take some testing, however (we'd need to discover which process is presenting the alert, first, and work from there). Unless you're really averse to the scary option, try that first with all due caution. if it fails, we can try something else.

Spotlight doesn't index the system files. go to the Finder, use the Go menu and select Go to Folder…, then type in /usr/libexec. you'll find the file there. It will appear like a unix executable because it doesn't have a file extension, but it's just a shell script, so you can open and modify it in a text editor.

Remember, it's a system file so you will need administrator status to edit it.

twtwtw wrote:

Spotlight doesn't index the system files.

Not so. Spotlight doesn't return results from many areas, such as OS and user Libraries, by default, but those are included in the index. To get Spotlight to reveal those requires that you add such things as System files and invisible files/folders to the search criteria. That's done by clicking on the Desktop, CMD+F, and under Kind, selecting other. That brings up additional criteria that can be added to the search.

yes, I neglected to say 'by default'. sorry.

alright, let's try something else. In terminal, run the following commands:

pmset -u haltlevel -1

pmset -u haltafter -1

pmset -u haltremain -1

These commands will turn off power management for the UPS, so that (arguably) the system won't have any reason to look at the charge on the IPS and warn you of impending power issues. You'll have to be a little more careful; if you have a serious power outage the system won't warn you when the UPS is almost drained.

you might also try setting different numbers. haltlevel is in percentages (% charge for triggering a 'save and quit' warning), haltafter is in minutes (trigger after x minutes have passed), haltremain is also minutes (estimated remaining time). Maybe you can find a set of numbers that work the way you like.

well, could you do it temporarily, just as a test? first do this command:

pmset -g ups

and write down your current settings, then turn them off, pull the plug on the computer to make the UPS kick in, see what happens, plug the machine back in, put the settings back to their original values. If the alert goes away when you do this, then we can try playing with different settings values to see if we can find a balance that will allow the machine to go to UPS without kicking in the alert.

The problem with scripting the alert is that it's apparently a modal dialog popped up by a background process, which means it won't go into the background and it's very difficult to catch in any of the scripting languages that I know. there are two separate problems involved here:

• figuring out which process is putting up the alert - that would probably require you to look through activity monitor and see what processes are likely sources
• figuring out how to trigger the script - there's no easy way to test whether a dialog is open or whether the computer has dropped into UPS mode for a bit.
• figuring out how to reliably close the alert - this shouldn't be too hard if they've used a standard alert but if they've used a custom window it might get itchy.

It would be easier and surer if we could figure out how to stop it rather than trying to figure out how to close it.

Bill Mullen1 wrote:

Is there a way to activate this action with a script?

the obvious answer to that question is 'yes, several'. The question, though, is when/how you want it activated. do you just want to be able to run it when you see the window, or do you want to run it automatically on some trigger, or do you just want it repeating in the background waiting for the window to pop up?

also, note that this will dismiss all alerts from the notification center. which may include alerts you want/need to see, and may (since you are clicking the OK button), get your computer to do things you don't want it to do. I'm just imagining an alert popping up with the phrase "Do you want to delete these files permanently?" - you probably don't want to automatically say OK to something like that, so you probably want this script to be a bit more selective.