Want a means to gracefully quit iTunes running in another user's account

[cpragman]

Background:
My family all shares a single iTunes library, located in a shared folder. This has worked well for years, but has one mild annoyance. Only one user can be running iTunes at a time, since the library is locked when in use. Sometimes another user wants to run iTunes, but first needs to log-in as another user to quit their running iTunes, then switch back to their account to launch it again.

With kids in the house, this is not optimal, as we don't want them having the login passwords of the adults.

I've tried using force quit, and the UNIX kill command to stop iTunes running when it is in use by another user, but neither of these has been desirable, because they don't get Tunes to quit gracefully (like using the Quit menu item does). For example, sending "killall -v -TERM -c 'iTunes' " causes a instantaneous quit, and the next time iTunes is launched, it has to rebuild it's library.

The Question:
I'm looking for a UNIX command that can tell iTunes to Quit gracefully. Once I have that, I can throw together a shell script that User X can run that will close iTunes in User Y's account.

[NaOH]

I have no help to offer with the solution you're proposing, but I'm wondering if enabling Sharing in the iTunes Preferences of each account would work as an alternative.

[chabig]

I think the media should be on a shared volume, but each account should have its own library. You'll have to start each iTunes account with a blank library. Then drag the shared media folder onto the iTunes window while holding down the option key. That'll tell iTunes to use that media without copying it.

[acme.mail.order]

sudo -u otherusername osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to quit'


Sharing sounds like a cleaner option.

[ganbustein]

Quote: Originally Posted by acme.mail.order sudo -u otherusername osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to quit'

That would require letting the kids know an admin password.

[acme.mail.order]

Ah, you want the one-click child-and-management-proof option?

Write a stone-simple C program that runs the above command for all regular users (minus `sudo`). Compile, test, set the suid bit and change the owner to root. Now write an Applescript to simply call it with `do shell script`, followed by `open iTunes.app`.

[cpragman]

Does it have to be a C program, or can a shell script also run with setuid?

[ganbustein]

No. suid is ignored on shell scripts. (It would be too easy to invade a system otherwise.)

[acme.mail.order]

We're not talking a complex XCode project here:

#include <stdlib.h>

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
   system("your shell command here");
   return 0;
}

[cpragman]

Perhaps something like this? Figuring out the escaping of all the quotes took a few tries.

Quote: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { system( "osascript -e \'tell application \"iTunes\" to quit\' " ); return 0; }