[Mr.Floppy]

I gave it a go, but I get an addon error. Looking in the log it says this:

Ah right, you don't want to execute this script in the context of the Kodi process.

Here's a fix... http://sprunge.us/eLXN

Put this alongside the texturecache.py script, call it shell.py and give it execute permissions - on Linux:

Code:

wget http://sprunge.us/eLXN -O ~/.kodi/userdata/shell.py && chmod +x ~/.kodi/userdata/shell.py

Now your Runscript() call needs to be (note this assumes the texturecache.py script is alongside the shell.py script, otherwise specify the full path to texturecache.py - don't use special://whatever):

Code:

RunScript(special://profile/shell.py,./texturecache.py,c)

For instance to map this to a remote control button:

Code:

<red>XBMC.RunScript(special://profile/shell.py,./texturecache.py,c)</red>

As a bonus you'll get notifications on start and finish, and you won't be able to run multiple instances (which wouldn't be good).

@milhouse:

While the solution via the shell.py script is working fine on my KODI Krypton v17.4 installations under LibreELEC on my Raspberry Pi and ANDROID box, I can't get it to work on my PC using KODI for windows...

First problem:
As there are no "/var/run/" directories on the KODI installation on my PC running Windows 7, I replaced the line from
pidfile = "/var/run/shellpy.pid"
to
pidfile = "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Roaming\KODI\userdata\shellpy.pid"

-> problem solved

Second problem:
Trying to run the script shell.py throws the following excepton in the KODI log:
05:43:21.729 T:2148   ERROR: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                             - NOTE: IGNORING THIS CAN LEAD TO MEMORY LEAKS!
                                            Error Type: <type 'exceptions.WindowsError'>
                                            Error Contents: [Error 2] Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\shell.py", line 31, in <module>
                                                shellnotify(sys.argv[1:])
                                              File "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\shell.py", line 24, in shellnotify
                                                notify("Starting...", " ".join(args))
                                              File "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\shell.py", line 11, in notify
                                                shellcmd(["kodi-send", "--action", "Notification(%s,%s)" % (header, text)])
                                              File "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\shell.py", line 7, in shellcmd
                                                process = subprocess.Popen(args, stderr=open(os.devnull, 'w'))
                                              File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\system\python\Lib\subprocess.py", line 390, in __init__
                                                errread, errwrite)
                                              File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\system\python\Lib\subprocess.py", line 640, in _execute_child
                                                startupinfo)
                                            WindowsError: [Error 2] Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden
                                            -->End of Python script error


I assume that the "WindowsError: [Error 2] Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden" (translated to english: "The system can't find the specified file") is caused by the missing "kodi-send" command under Windows, right?
I was not able to find an alternative command line tool for windows, but maybe I didn't use the appropriate search terms, since I'm a noob regarding python programming...

So - how could I get a "work-around" for this problem?

Okay - after having dealt with Python and shell scripting under Windows for quite some time now, I finally found a way to modify the shell.py script so that it works now under this OS, too.

There are some important points to remember:
a) Since Windows (other than Linux) has no built-in Python interpreter and bash shell, you have to install them separately.
b) To avoid any problems with KODI, you have to install "Python 2.x" - "Python 3.x" won't work!
c) The paths to the executable files must be added to the environment variable PATH in Windows.

But don't afraid - this is not complicated at all if you follow my advices:
1. Download and install a "Python 2.x" version from the website under https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ ; make sure that you enable "Add python.exe to path" in the process of installation!
2. Download and install "Git for windows" (which provides a BASH emulation) from the website under https://git-for-windows.github.io/ ; make sure that you enable "Use Git and optional Unix tools from the Windows Command Prompt" in the process of installation!

And here's the modified shell.py script:

Code:

!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import os, subprocess, sys, xbmc

def shellcmd(args):
  if sys.argv[1].endswith(".py"):
    command = "python " + " ".join(args)
  elif sys.argv[1].endswith(".sh"):
    command = "sh " + " ".join(args)

  subprocess.call(command, shell=True)

def notify(header, text):
  xbmc.executebuiltin('notification(%s, %s)' % (header, text))

def shellnotify(args):
  os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)))
  pidfile = "shellpy.pid"

  if os.path.isfile(pidfile):
   notify("Already running!", file(pidfile, 'r').read())
   sys.exit(1)

  file(pidfile, 'w').write(" ".join(args))

  try:
    notify("Starting...", " ".join(args))
    shellcmd(args)
    notify("Finished", " ".join(args))
  finally:
    os.unlink(pidfile)


shellnotify(sys.argv[1:])

The beauty of this solution is that it will work not only with the Runscript() call of "./texturecache.py", but also with any other shell script; for an example see here: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2233173

Have fun with it :-)