Finger Kernel.org Script

What it does...

This script will run the command finger @www.kernel.org from cron (every few hours) and email me if there were any new kernel releases based on the output of that command.

Email format...

From: <you>
To: <you>
Subject: new kernel release (2.4.23)

Changes

-The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is:           2.4.22
-The latest prepatch for the stable Linux kernel tree is:    2.4.23-rc5
-The latest snapshot for the stable Linux kernel tree is:    2.4.22-bk62
+The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is:           2.4.23

Complete output of finger @www.kernel.org

[zeus-pub.kernel.org]
The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is:           2.4.23
The latest beta version of the Linux kernel is:             2.6.0-test11
The latest 2.2 version of the Linux kernel is:              2.2.25
The latest 2.0 version of the Linux kernel is:              2.0.39
The latest prepatch for the 2.0 Linux kernel tree is:       2.0.40-rc6
The latest -ac patch to the stable Linux kernels is:        2.4.22-ac4
The latest -ac patch to the beta Linux kernels is:          2.6.0-test1-ac3

Download...

finger-kernel-org

Installing...

1. copy script to ~/bin (or whereever you wnat)
2. edit your personal crontab crontab -e, mine looks like this

   
   USER=bart
   HOME=/home/bart
   PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:$HOME/bin
   
   # m h dom mon dow command
   0 */4 * * * $HOME/bin/finger-kernel-org
   
   

3. optionally edit the script variables (like TMP, etc)