Hi,

I am using a python script to open Pd files on a Raspberry Pi. I am having an issue because I using shell commands to open Pure Data and when I want to open a new patch it always opens a new instance of Pd. Is there any way to have Pd only run in one instance? Is there a message I can give it? or a flag or something?

EDIT: here's a better way of asking my question. Is there a shell command I can use to open a .pd file in an already open instance of Pure Data? That's really what's hanging me up.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Nick

I just discovered the shell object. I'm gonna take a look at that.

@nicnut You can do this very simply by a message to Pd...... like this......

It needs the name of the file, followed by the complete path from root to the file.
David.

@whale-av thanks for your reply. I don't know if you are in the US, but if so Happy Thanksgiving.

What I am trying to do, and I think this is a possible way to do it, is send a message from the computer terminal using a python script to the inside of Pd to open a file. My image sort of describes the intent. In your example it's all happening within Pd and I need it to get a message from the computer terminal into Pd. Or, using the computer terminal, open a Pd file in the already opend instance of Pd.

I never got Shell to work, but after looking at it I realized it can send a message to the terminal of the computer, but I don't know if it can receive a message from the terminal, so maybe it's not possible using shell.

Let me know if there's some other ideas or options. I'm still researching this.

Thank You. Nick

@nicnut Happy thanksgiving to you too!
I am in France..... hence help will be slow.... but anyway.....
You should send a message from Python directly to Pd.

There is some help on how to do that here....... https://guitarextended.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/make-python-and-pure-data-communicate-on-the-raspberry-pi/

Then you can receive the filename that you have sent from python.
If you send the filename and the path from python then (probably)......... if you use port 3000 as in the link above....

But that could easily be wrong. It will depend on a few things.
Are you using Extended or Vanilla..... you will need to look at the help for [netreceive] and set it to tcp or udp (depends what you are sending from Python).

The above should work if the message sent from python is a string "filename <space> path to file".
The $1 will be replaced by "filename" and the $2 by "path to file"
If you know in Pd already the "path to file" then you do not need to send it from python.
You can put the message......
[open $1 C:/thepath(

Don't despair....!
Many great experts are on this forum and will reply, so ask your questions at any time.

Posting the Python code you have made into this thread will help us see any problems.
But the Python code to create the "filename" string you probably know more about than me......
David.

@whale-av Thanks for your input! Yes I've seen that link. Ok I'm going to need to hunker down and really try and figure this out. I think netreceive is the next thing to try.

I've been trying to figure out this raspberry pi situation for so long. Thanks for all your help in this. If I can get this part to work I think (hope) I can get back to trying to figure out musical/sound problems instead of these brain melting computer issues.

thanks and I'll post what I come up with.

nick

what you could do is first kill the running instance with "killalll pd" or "sudo killall pd" and then open the new patch

@francis666 what you suggested is what I do with my older setup on another Raspberry Pi. It is a great idea and would be the best solution. However on this other Pi I have a different OS and I am running Pd .49. For whatever reason it is super hard to connect Pd and my Arduino Midi controller, so I do it using aconnect, an alsamidi utility. It takes 30 seconds for the midi controller to be recognized by Pd, which is a really long time in a live performance setup (for me). So I need a way to open my patches while keeping Pd running, thus this whole other headache. lol. Hopefully I'll figure this out.

@nicnut The receiver in Pd will be the easy part.
Have you got anywhere with the Python code yet?
David.

@nicnut thats pretty weird, im doing the same and its almost instantaneous, do you aconnect by name or port nr? alternatively what you could do is merge your patches into one big patch with pd~ instances and turn parts of the patch on and off remotely to save cpu, or you dig into the undocumented pd msgs, im sure there is a way to tell pd to close a patch and load another one

@nicnut What an absolute on my rpi with x11vnc under Stretch. Was fine in Jessie.
Anyway........ like........ this.zip ...... will ......work... from Python.....
David.

Holy Cow! @whale-av this totally worked! thank you.

I assumed pdsend just came with the installation of Pd, but it wasn't there. I put it in the bin.

Also, for the record I am also using Stretch and Pd .49.

Anyway this is really great and I can format my message from here.

@francis666 I know it is weird that it takes 30 seconds. This 30 secs includes opening Pd and my patch, then 30 seconds later the aconnect line runs in the terminal. I tried 10 seconds, 20 seconds, but those didn't work. I wish Pd could automatically see the midi controller, but that's not happening.

Hi everyone. I'm still grappling with this issue, but I feel like I'm getting close. I can send my file name and file path from python into Pd. it took forever to figure out.

But I am having an issue formatting my message to open the file from within Pd. If you look at the patch I uploaded, on the right, if I manually type in my file name and path and pack them together into a message and send it to Pd the file will open. But when I send it from Python using netreceive objects it will not open. I printed out what is coming out of pack and it says "open beat_three.9.pd symbol" instead of "open beat_three.9.pd /media/pi/PYRAMIDI/pd_patches/aa_beat_three".

At first I thought that long file path can't go through the pack object, but it goes through it fine on the example on the right of the patch. It just seems that if I send this info in from a netreceive object it's not really working.

Any suggestions?

thanks, Nick

open_from_python.pd

@nicnut Almost certainly the order of operations...... patch.pd
The [pack] must have its $2 already when it receives its $1 and bangs through [$1 $2( ...... otherwise it will just bang through [$1 nothing(
David.

patch2.pd

@whale-av I thought it was the order of operations too, I did some tests with extreme delays and that didn't work.

For some reason i had to add another list2symbol object before the path gets to the pack object. it's interesting because the file name didn't need a list2symbol, but I added it just for consistency and to be safe.

Anyway now this all works, I can open my patches from python within Pd. This is really huge for me so thank you forum and especially @whale-av for all your help!

Purr Data automatically routes the patch to the currently open instance (if there is one).

@jancsika Ok thanks. I need to spend some time with Purr Data. I have in installed, but haven't investigated in enough yet. Anyway, It seems I have this issue figured out.

thanks, Nick