jsd

Rationale

Features

• Start, stop, pause buttons on joystick
• volume control on joystick
• move around playlist with joystick
• the ability to start "child" jsds securely in a user context (ie. in a user's X session) without giving the user direct access to the joystick. [At least, *I* think it's secure.]
• The ability to work with other programs for other purposes, ie. jsd can be an joystick-controlled image viewer by running:

   jsd me -d $HOME/yourgraphicsdir -p xv 

  [If you don't have a parent jsd in daemon mode, leave out the "me". See the manpage.]
• can be sent command-line control commands after it starts.

It's got everything my roommate asked for, and more. :)

Note: this needs a fairly recent joystick driver, included in linux 2.2.x.

Typical usage, in your rc.local:

jsd -d /mp3_dir -p mp3_player

Security

jsd needs read access to your joystick device (ie. /dev/js0). To use the command unix-domain socket ability, jsd needs to be able to open a socket in /var/run. You can run it as a non-root user if that user has access to your joystick device (ie. /dev/js0), and if you don't care about the command socket. If you start jsd as root, it will open the /dev/js0 and the command socket as root, and then drop its perimissions to either the joystick user (if such a user exists) or the nobody user. If you really want it to retain root, you can use the -r option.

The permissions on the command socket are 622, unless a joystick group exists or the -g option is used, in which case permissions are 620.

jsd does use any temp files, create any output files, or open any internet-domain sockets.

Major TODO items

• botton/axis combos
• config file