ook file - routinely clear contents

[frevoli]

Sometimes, whilst long term soak testing, my output ook file grows too large.

Is there a clean way to clear its contents every 'x' days, or when a specific file size is reached?

I have tried to do this using Python, which works, but if it happens to clear the file whilst rtl_433 is writing to it then rtl_433 crashes.

I considered maybe stopping my rtl_433 process, deleting the ook file, then restarting rtl_433, but this feels unnecessarily disjointed.

Anyone have any ideas as to how I might achieve this cleanly?

Many thanks!

[zuckschwerdt]

Interesting. It should be possible to enable this and e.g. automate it with logrotate. Works in this way:
You rename the current output file and signal the running program (killall -HUP rtl_433).
The program then checks and reopens all renamed files.

We'll just have to implement the signal/reopen part.

[zuckschwerdt]

That's your RTL-SDR dongle erroring. Nothing we can do about that. But there is the -D restart option which might recover the SDR on failure.

[frevoli]

Interesting. I run two SDRs simultaneously, 433MHz & 868MHz.
The 868 generally fails first.

I will try the -D restart option as suggested.

Thank you.

[zuckschwerdt]

There might be a reason: thermal problems manifest with higher sample rates and 868 has 1M sample rate, 433 only 250k.
If those are the cheapest RTL-SDR then maybe glue a heatsink on.

[frevoli]

I'll experiment with heatsinks in addition to the restart flag

[frevoli]

Seems ok so far. I'll keep you updated of the outcome.
Incidentally, you mention 868 uses 1M SR, and 433 uses 250K SR.
I use 1M for both. It works just as well.