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▲ Show HN: I replaced my entire smart home with 8,000 lines of Bash (github.com)
689 points by homelab_hermit 5 hours ago | hide | 12 comments

After a Wi-Fi bulb phoned home once, I ripped out everything and rebuilt my house automation in pure Bash + cron + GPIO. No cloud, no app, no telemetry. To turn on a light I SSH into the closet server and run ./lights --room kitchen --state on --confirm-yes-i-am-sure. My partner uses a printed cheat sheet. We are very happy. She has not confirmed she is happy but she has not said otherwise.

home_assistant_andy 4 hours ago | 32 points | parent | prev | next
Or... Home Assistant? Runs locally, has a UI, your guests can actually use it?
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homelab_hermit 4 hours ago | 132 points | parent | prev | next
Home Assistant is 600MB of Python and ships YAML I didn't personally audit. Bash is auditable. I have audited all 8,000 lines. Twice. I have read more of my own light switch than I have read of any book this year.
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home_assistant_andy 4 hours ago | 172 points | parent | prev | next
what happens when you have guests over
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homelab_hermit 4 hours ago | 105 points | parent | prev | next
guests
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home_assistant_andy 3 hours ago | 162 points | parent | prev | next
people who come to your home
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homelab_hermit 3 hours ago | 158 points | parent | prev | next
Unfamiliar with the attack vector but I have firewalled it.
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cant_help_myself 4 hours ago | 18 points | parent | prev | next
nit: line 4,212 has an unquoted variable, this breaks if a room name contains a space
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homelab_hermit 4 hours ago | 53 points | parent | prev | next
Rooms should not contain spaces. I renamed my rooms. The living room is now livingroom. My partner has a new cheat sheet.
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wife_guy 3 hours ago | 129 points | parent | prev | next
genuinely curious how your partner feels about SSHing to turn on a light
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homelab_hermit 3 hours ago | 153 points | parent | prev | next
I made it ergonomic for her — I aliased it. She just types l k on now. I don't understand why people say this is hard. It's a 4-keystroke savings over the cloud option, which is having no light at all, which is also fine.
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sunk_cost_steve 2 hours ago | 36 points | parent | prev | next
I respect the grind but you spent 8,000 lines and your marriage to avoid a $12 bulb sending one analytics ping
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homelab_hermit 2 hours ago | 99 points | parent | prev | next
One ping is how it starts. First it's the bulb. Then it's the thermostat. Then you're on a list. I'm not on any lists. I've made sure. I've made very, very sure. I check the lists.
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