New configuration option for interactive

.gitignore

@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ __pycache__
 venv
 .DS_Store
 .vscode
+src/plotman.egg-info

README.md

@@ -147,6 +147,25 @@ archive jobs initiated.  This is the one part of the interactive tool which is
 stateful.  There is no permanent record of these executed command lines, so if
 you start a new interactive plotman session, this log is empty.
 
+## `plotman` commands
+To get a complete list of all available commands run: 
+```shell
+plotman -h
+```
+
+You can also use `plotman <command> -h` to get help about a specific command, like 
+```shell
+plotman interactive -h
+```
+
+## Running `plotman` as a daemon
+> _PS: this section assumes that you have already configured `plotman.yaml`._
+
+By default the command `plotman plot` will start the plotting job and continue to run on the foregroud as long as you keep the terminal window open. If you want to have it constantly running, try the following:
+```shell
+nohup plotman plot >> ~/plotman.log 2>&1 &
+```
+
 ## Limitations and Issues
 
 The system is tested on Linux only.  Plotman should be generalizable to other

src/plotman/_tests/configuration_test.py

@@ -18,6 +18,21 @@ def test_get_validated_configs__default(config_text):
     res = configuration.get_validated_configs(config_text, '')
     assert isinstance(res, configuration.PlotmanConfig)
 
+def test_tool_interactive_should_be_none(config_text):
+    """When tools/interacting doesn't exist, its configuration property should be None"""
+    loaded_yaml = yaml.load(config_text, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
+
+    del loaded_yaml["tools"]["interactive"]
+    reloaded_yaml = configuration.get_validated_configs(yaml.dump(loaded_yaml, Dumper=yaml.SafeDumper), '')
+    assert reloaded_yaml.tools.interactive is None
+
+def test_tool_section_does_not_exist(config_text):
+    """When tools doesn't exist, its configuration property should be None"""
+    loaded_yaml = yaml.load(config_text, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
+
+    del loaded_yaml["tools"]
+    reloaded_yaml = configuration.get_validated_configs(yaml.dump(loaded_yaml, Dumper=yaml.SafeDumper), '')
+    assert reloaded_yaml.tools is None
 
 def test_get_validated_configs__malformed(config_text):
     """Check that get_validated_configs() raises exception with invalid plotman.yaml contents."""

src/plotman/configuration.py

@@ -94,9 +94,18 @@ class Plotting:
 class UserInterface:
     use_stty_size: bool = True
 
+@attr.frozen
+class Interactive:
+    autostart_plotting: bool
+
+@attr.frozen
+class Tools:
+    interactive: Optional[Interactive] = None
+
 @attr.frozen
 class PlotmanConfig:
     directories: Directories
     scheduling: Scheduling
     plotting: Plotting
+    tools: Optional[Tools] = None
     user_interface: UserInterface = attr.ib(factory=UserInterface)

src/plotman/interactive.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 import math
 import os
 import subprocess
-
+import sys
 from plotman import archive, configuration, manager, reporting
 from plotman.job import Job
 
@@ -62,14 +62,21 @@ def archiving_status_msg(configured, active, status):
     else:
         return '(not configured)'
 
-def curses_main(stdscr):
+# cmd_autostart_plotting is the (optional) argument passed from the command line. May be None
+def curses_main(stdscr, cmd_autostart_plotting):
     log = Log()
 
     config_path = configuration.get_path()
     config_text = configuration.read_configuration_text(config_path)
     cfg = configuration.get_validated_configs(config_text, config_path)
 
-    plotting_active = True
+    if cmd_autostart_plotting is not None:
+        plotting_active = cmd_autostart_plotting
+    elif cfg.tools is not None and cfg.tools.interactive is not None:
+        plotting_active = cfg.tools.interactive.autostart_plotting
+    else:
+        plotting_active = True
+
     archiving_configured = cfg.directories.archive is not None
     archiving_active = archiving_configured
 
@@ -324,14 +331,13 @@ def curses_main(stdscr):
         else:
             pressed_key = key
 
-
-def run_interactive():
+def run_interactive(autostart_plotting = None):
     locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '')
     code = locale.getpreferredencoding()
     # Then use code as the encoding for str.encode() calls.
 
     try:
-        curses.wrapper(curses_main)
+        curses.wrapper(curses_main, autostart_plotting)
     except curses.error as e:
         raise TerminalTooSmallError(
             "Your terminal may be too small, try making it bigger.",

src/plotman/plotman.py

@@ -5,13 +5,13 @@
 import random
 from shutil import copyfile
 import time
+import sys
 
 # Plotman libraries
 from plotman import analyzer, archive, configuration, interactive, manager, plot_util, reporting
 from plotman import resources as plotman_resources
 from plotman.job import Job
 
-
 class PlotmanArgParser:
     def add_idprefix_arg(self, subparser):
         subparser.add_argument(
@@ -30,7 +30,16 @@ def parse_args(self):
 
         sp.add_parser('dirs', help='show directories info')
 
-        sp.add_parser('interactive', help='run interactive control/monitoring mode')
+        p_interactive = sp.add_parser('interactive', help='run interactive control/monitoring mode')
+        p_interactive.add_argument('--autostart-plotting',
+            action='store_true',
+            default=None,
+            help='Automatically start plotting when the tool opens')
+
+        p_interactive.add_argument('--no-autostart-plotting',
+            action='store_true',
+            default=None,
+            help='Do not start plotting when the tool opens')
 
         sp.add_parser('dsched', help='print destination dir schedule')
 
@@ -170,7 +179,15 @@ def main():
             print(reporting.dirs_report(jobs, cfg.directories, cfg.scheduling, get_term_width()))
 
         elif args.cmd == 'interactive':
-            interactive.run_interactive()
+            if args.autostart_plotting is not None:
+                autostart_plotting = True
+            elif args.no_autostart_plotting is not None:
+                autostart_plotting = False
+            else:
+                # In this case we'll check the configuration file
+                autostart_plotting = None
+
+            interactive.run_interactive(autostart_plotting)
 
         # Start running archival
         elif args.cmd == 'archive':

src/plotman/resources/plotman.yaml

@@ -9,6 +9,13 @@ user_interface:
         # you resize the terminal window, you can try setting this to True. 
         use_stty_size: True
 
+# Optional custom settings for the tools (status, interactive etc)
+tools:
+        interactive:
+                # Set it to False if you don't want to auto start plotting when 'interactive' is ran.
+                # You can override this value from the command line, type "plotman interactive -h" for details
+                autostart_plotting: True
+
 # Where to plot and log.
 directories:
         # One directory in which to store all plot job logs (the STDOUT/