[vdr] Suggestion: new SVDRP command to cut a recording

[hm@seneca.muc.de]

Hi,

I would like to implement a new SVDRP command to have a remote machine 
start a cutting thread. Reason: 

My 2 machines share a common NFS with all the recordings on it. Cutting
should always take place on the fast server that hosts the NFS. The much
slower living room machine should not be bothered with cutting, having to
read and write everything over the WLAN. It would be easy to implement a
reccmds entry, invoking a cutting thread on the server if we had a SVDRP
command, like

RCUT <dirname>

(RCUT for Remote CUT, if you like)

As far as I can see the implementation is really easy in vdr, i.e. CmdRCUT
would only have to invoke something like

if (cCutter::Start(filename)) {
	Reply (250, "cutting thread started"); 
} else {
	Reply (550, "cutting thread already active");
}

It would also be good to have a second command to stop a cutting
thread if one is active (or use RCUT("STOP")).  

I'm not sure how to implement feedback from the server, e.g. when cutting
is finished. Sending a MESG would be an option but then the server would
have to keep track of who sent the RCUT, and I'd prefer the server to
remain stateless. I may have to poll RCUT("STAT"), for example, checking
the answer. But this is very hackerish... 

Does it make sense to patch vdr-1.2.6, or is 1.2.6 development finished? I
use only streamdev on my server, and streamdev appears to compile fine with
recent 1.3 versions IIRC so I could also use 1.3.15 or something. 

RCUT could also be used by vdradmin, for example, to control cutting on a
server. Otherwise, streamdev may be the correct place to implement the
interface. I'd prefer a (perl) command line tool, however. 

Comments please ... :-) 

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