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Forked from albertbori/Installation.md
Created April 21, 2017 19:32
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Automatically disable Wifi when an Ethernet connection (cable) is plugged in on a Mac
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.asb.toggleairport</string>
<key>OnDemand</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh</string>
</array>
<key>WatchPaths</key>
<array>
<string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

Overview

This is a bash script that will automatically turn your wifi off if you connect your computer to an ethernet connection and turn wifi back on when you unplug your ethernet cable/adapter. If you decide to turn wifi on for whatever reason, it will remember that choice. This was improvised from this mac hint to work with Yosemite, and without hard-coding the adapter names. It's supposed to support growl, but I didn't check that part. I did, however, add OSX notification center support. Feel free to fork and fix any issues you encounter.

Most the credit for these changes go to Dave Holland.

Requirements

  • Mac OSX 10+
  • Administrator privileges

Installation Instructions

  • Copy toggleAirport.sh to /Library/Scripts/
  • Run chmod 755 /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh
  • Copy com.mine.toggleairport.plist to /Library/LaunchAgents/
  • Run chmod 600 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist
  • Run sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist to start the watcher

Uninstall Instructions

  • Run sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist to stop the watcher
  • Delete /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh
  • Delete /Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist
  • Delete /private/var/tmp/prev_eth_on
  • Delete /private/var/tmp/prev_air_on

Misc

To debug, just run: sudo /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh and add echo's wherever you'd like

#!/bin/bash
function set_airport {
new_status=$1
if [ $new_status = "On" ]; then
/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower $air_name on
touch /var/tmp/prev_air_on
else
/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower $air_name off
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
rm /var/tmp/prev_air_on
fi
fi
}
function growl {
# Checks whether Growl is installed
if [ -f "/usr/local/bin/growlnotify" ]; then
/usr/local/bin/growlnotify -m "$1" -a "AirPort Utility.app"
else
osascript -e "display notification \"$1\" with title \"Wifi Toggle\" sound name \"Hero\""
fi
}
# Set default values
prev_eth_status="Off"
prev_air_status="Off"
eth_status="Off"
# Grab the names of the adapters. We assume here that any ethernet connection name ends in "Ethernet"
eth_names=`networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En 's|^\(Hardware Port: .*Ethernet, Device: (en.)\)$|\1|p'`
air_name=`networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En 's/^\(Hardware Port: (Wi-Fi|AirPort), Device: (en.)\)$/\2/p'`
# Determine previous ethernet status
# If file prev_eth_on exists, ethernet was active last time we checked
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
prev_eth_status="On"
fi
# Determine same for AirPort status
# File is prev_air_on
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
prev_air_status="On"
fi
# Check actual current ethernet status
for eth_name in ${eth_names}; do
if ([ "$eth_name" != "" ] && [ "`ifconfig $eth_name | grep "status: active"`" != "" ]); then
eth_status="On"
fi
done
# And actual current AirPort status
air_status=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -getairportpower $air_name | awk '{ print $4 }'`
# If any change has occured. Run external script (if it exists)
if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ] || [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then
if [ -f "./statusChanged.sh" ]; then
"./statusChanged.sh" "$eth_status" "$air_status" &
fi
fi
# Determine whether ethernet status changed
if [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then
if [ "$eth_status" = "On" ]; then
set_airport "Off"
growl "Wired network detected. Turning AirPort off."
else
set_airport "On"
growl "No wired network detected. Turning AirPort on."
fi
# If ethernet did not change
else
# Check whether AirPort status changed
# If so it was done manually by user
if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ]; then
set_airport $air_status
if [ "$air_status" = "On" ]; then
growl "AirPort manually turned on."
else
growl "AirPort manually turned off."
fi
fi
fi
# Update ethernet status
if [ "$eth_status" == "On" ]; then
touch /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
else
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
rm /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
fi
fi
exit 0
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