ph

README

ph

ph was build to limit the daily game time of my kids.

It is a tool that monitors OS processes and terminates those who exceed the specified daily time limit.

Configuration

The daily time limit is specified in a configuration file cfg.json, like this:

[
    {
        "processes": [
            "example process 1",
            "example process 2.exe",
        ],
        "limits": {
            "*": "1h",
            "mon wed fri 2019-12-25": "2h30m"
        }
    },
    {
        "processes": [
            "FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe",
            "RustClient.exe"
        ],
        "limits": {
            "*": "2h",
            "fri sat sun": "3h30m"
        }
    }
]

When daily time balance of a process exceeds the specified time limit, the process is terminated.

When more than one process names are specifed in processes group (as array or strings), then all these processes will contribute to the group's daily time balance. Processes belonging to such groups will be terminated if the time balance of the group exceeds the specified limit.

Daily time limits are in the "HHhMMhSSs" format, where HH is hours, MM - minutes and SS seconds. For example 3h45m30s is a daily time limit of 3 hours, 45 minutes and 30 seconds.

Daily time limits "limits" can be assigned to:

• any day "*"
• one or more specific days of the week or concrete dates, for example:
  • "tue" - for Tuesdays
  • "2019-10-16" - for Oct 16th, 2019
  • "sat sun 2019-12-25" - for Sundays, Saturdays or specifically for Dec 25th 2019

If a particular day matches more than one specification, then the most-concrete specification will be applied, in the following priority order:

• concrete date, e.g. "2019-10-16"
• concrete date from a list, e.g. "sat sun 2019-12-25"
• concreate day of week, e.g. "mon"
• concreate day of week from a list, e.g. "mon tue"
• any day, i.e. "*"

Week days are in format of three-letter abbreviations of the week days - mon tue wed thu fri sat sun. Dates are in format yyyy-mm-dd. When in list week days or dates are separated by spaces

UI

The tool serves a trivial web UI at localhost:8080

OS compatibility

ph is a multi-platform tool that runs on Linux, macOS and Windows.

On Windows, ph is designed to work as Windows service.

To install as service, run make build, copy the \bin folder somewhere and run phsvc install and phsvc start to install and run the tool as Windows serive. Run phsvc stop and phsvc remove to stop and uninstall the service. Run phsvc debug to run the ph as a command line tool (without installing as Windows service)

Work in Progress

The tool is usable as it is, but far from perfect. The author intends to develop it further, mostly by imporving the user experience.

Top priority items are:

• improve web UI
• add API/UI to add to the daily time limit