I want to run a script when the user clicks the shutdown button in KDE4. If I put the entry into the ~/.kde/shutdown folder then it only runs AFTER the shutdown process has started, and KDE has closed. I would like to run the script before KDE exists, so that I can abort the KDE exit from the script. Adding it to the:

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System setting > Startup and Shutdown


gives me the same problem. My script simply calls:

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kdesudo 'shutdown -c'


to abort shutdown if necessary.

Does anyone know how to abort the shutdown before KDE exits?

couldn't you supersede the shutdown command called from kmenu with a script you wrote? if this script was early in the $PATH searched than it would be executed, of course then all calls to the "shutdown" (assuming it's whats being called) command would be also superseded and you would need to handle all possible variations.

caveat - not being a dev I could be totally wrong about this and it could just be dumb

Thanks for the reply, but I am not sure how to do that. I have been using Linux for a while, but I have never had to modify it's internal code before. I don't mind doing so though.

Note that KDE uses communication with KDM/ConsoleKit to enact the shutdown of the system, rather than directly invoking any shutdown commands itself.

What is the exact purpose of this script?

This is the script, the purpose of which is to offer an abort option during the shutdown process if the backup-manager process is running, and the user has pressed the shutdown button in the KDE menu:

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#!/bin/sh

SERVICE='backup-manager'
 
#
if ! ps -C $SERVICE > /dev/null
then
   # Do nothing as we are not in the middle of a backup
    echo "$SERVICE is NOT running"
else
    zenity --question --title "Backup-manager is running" --text "Backup-manager is running. If you continue to shutdown then you may loose backup data. \n\nAre you shre you want to shutdown";

   if [ $? = 0 ]; then
     echo "Continuing with shutdown"
   else
     echo ""
     echo "Attempting to abort shutdown"
     kdesudo 'shutdown -c'
   fi
fi


I would suggest using the X Session Management Protocol (XSMP) to communicate with the KDE Session Manager. Applications can request that the session not exit if needed as part of this protocol.

See http://www.xfree86.org/current/xsmp.pdf and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_session_manager