Linux Desktop Hacks

Put Screenshots Automatically on the Web #65

Chapter 8, Desktop Programs

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HACK

The script this hack uses to upload the screenshot is written in Perl and

requires

Net::FTP, a web server, and a simple program called scrot; all of

these are freely available online.

Installing scrot

You can find scrot, a command-line screen-capture tool (similar to import,

which is included with ImageMagick), at http://linuxbrit.co.uk/scrot/.

Extract, compile, and install the software with these few commands:

foo@bar:~$ wget http://linuxbrit.co.uk/downloads/scrot-0.8.tar.gz

foo@bar:~$ tar -zxvf scrot-0.8.tar.gz

foo@bar:~$ cd scrot-0.8

foo@bar:~$ ./configure

foo@bar:~$ make

foo@bar:~$ su -c "make install"

With scrot installed, you can use it to take screenshots anytime you want;

just find the nearest terminal and type

scrot. For more information on scrot,

see the manpage.

Perl is likely to be installed already on your Linux system, but if it isn’t, you

should use your distribution’s installation tool to install it. In addition to the

stock Perl installation, you also need the

Net::FTP module that you can

install by using CPAN, Perl’s module repository:

foo@bar:~# perl -e shell -MCPAN

foo@bar:~# install Net::FTP

The Code

This is where all the magic is. Just write each line into your favorite text edi-

tor, whether it is emacs or vim or something else, and save it as

autoscreenshot.pl in $localfolder:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use Net::FTP; ...