105
36
Most of the application can show nicely formatted notification on events that appear on top right corner of the screen. I'm about to write a bash script that will do fairy long processing in the background and I really want to know when it is finished. How can I show that nice notification from a bash script?
vava
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 5 238
128
If you're using the new notification system in Jaunty, you want the notify-send command
notify-send - a program to send desktop notifications
SYNOPSIS
With notify-send you can sends desktop notifications to the user via
a notification daemon from the command line. These notifications can be
used to inform the user about an event or display some form of information
without getting in the user's way.
OPTIONS
-u, --urgency=LEVEL
Specifies the urgency level (low, normal, critical).
-t, --expire-time=TIME
Specifies the timeout in milliseconds at which to expire the notification.
-i, --icon=ICON[,ICON...]
Specifies an icon filename or stock icon to display.
-c, --category=TYPE[,TYPE...]
Specifies the notification category.
3
The --expire-time parameter does not work on Ubuntu thanks to this "feature" (bug). https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd/+bug/390508
– axiopisty – 2016-04-18T15:43:22.520I found that notify-send is inhibited during video/audio playback. While this is a valid use case, if you still want to see them then --urgency=critical must be added. – ccpizza – 2017-02-20T07:36:13.757
I'm using jessie (Linux raspberrypi 4.4.50-v7+), on raspberry, install notify 'libnotify-bin', but it don't bring any notification! -> notify-send Test "Hello World" – Dr.jacky – 2017-03-11T09:22:19.173
Thanks buddy. I used this to send me a notification every 10 minutes to blink eyes using cron as a reminder to follow 20-20 (10-10 rule in my case) rule. ;) – Jasser – 2017-10-28T15:40:17.610
To make it pop up a window with an "OK" and "Cancel" button use notify-send --expire-time=0 "Hello World" or notify-send -t 0 "Hello world" – Gabriel Staples – 2018-04-02T17:55:32.347
Note, however, that otherwise the --expire-time or -t option is worthless (ignored), unfortunately, and the default of 10 sec or so applies to all notifications regardless of what you want. Pretty stupid if you ask me! https://askubuntu.com/questions/110969/notify-send-ignores-timeout
I couldn't take it; I had to write my own answer :) https://superuser.com/a/1310142/425838
– Gabriel Staples – 2018-04-02T18:15:26.5734Thanks, just found it myself :) apt-get install libnotify-bin have to be run before to get it. – vava – 2009-08-29T10:39:15.133
How does the root user send a message from crons, init.d, etc? – Lance Caraccioli – 2013-11-22T04:38:41.613
6Eg: notify-send Test "Hello World" – Thaha kp – 2014-06-04T08:26:30.263
31
Found another way, through Zenity
echo 'message:hi' | zenity --notification --listen
(This also has the benefit of already being installed on Ubuntu.)
vava
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 5 238
I like Zenity in that it supports user interactions for dialogs (unlike notify-send) – Waffle's Crazy Peanut – 2018-01-21T13:32:28.167
12
For KDE users:
$ kdialog --title "Long process completed!" --passivepopup "This popup will disappear in 5 seconds" 5 &
kolypto
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 2 861
Is it possible to set an icon for the notification? – Malabarba – 2012-05-14T04:18:17.263
12
There's also xmessage that will pop-up a window, so it should work on any X11 system.
Pro: It also allows interactively prompting the user with buttons.
Con: Like any pop-up alert, it typically receives focus, so if you're in the middle of typing it can disappear before you read the message.
NVRAM
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 778
It's not available in the default Xorg installation of Arch Linux either. – friederbluemle – 2018-01-22T08:06:28.960
You can also get a popup window with an "OK" and "Cancel" button via notify-send --expire-time=0 "Hello World" or notify-send -t 0 "Hello world". Otherwise, however, the -t option is ignored due to some stupid "design decisions": https://askubuntu.com/questions/110969/notify-send-ignores-timeout
I couldn't take it; I had to write my own answer :) https://superuser.com/a/1310142/425838
– Gabriel Staples – 2018-04-02T18:15:16.4974Con: It looks ugly as hell, and also is a super tiny window which is not always obvious to the user. Anyways, it is universal though. :) – Nik Reiman – 2013-05-06T11:37:50.493
xmessage doesn't work in Fedora though. Its not installed by default. – Abhay Mittal – 2014-06-03T16:47:28.580
5
notify-send "Hello world"
Source: https://superuser.com/a/31919/425838
[window does not get auto-focus]
notify-send -t 0 "Hello world"
Source: myself; note: -t is ignored for all values except 0--how stupid. :(
OR
[window gets auto-focus]
zenity --info --title "Hello" --text "World"
Source: https://askubuntu.com/a/804475/327339
OR
--timeout in seconds]zenity --info --title "Hello" --text "World" --timeout=2
Source: myself reading the man pages: man zenity
OR
[super ugly-looking]
xmessage 'hello world'
Gabriel Staples
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 625
3
There exists a cross-platform solution called Yfiton:
$ yfiton -n desktop -Pmessage="Lunch time!" -Pposition=TOP_RIGHT
Laurent
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 131
2
In a shell script, you can also call the osd_cat utility from libxosd.
geek
Posted 2009-08-29T10:31:30.763
Reputation: 7 120
1This is a little bit different as it doesn't use ubuntu desktop notifications. – vava – 2009-08-29T13:43:40.187
Yes, this is an alternative that you can use with any Linux distribution and any WM/DE. – geek – 2009-08-30T13:39:27.677
1How can I trigger a notification when a job/process ends? – phuclv – 2015-07-27T11:59:44.410
Bonus question: Can you put the notification on certain output only? What if you use screen mirroring? – jarno – 2020-02-03T13:36:35.140