Setting alarms in Linux to alert user

Question

I am running a few tasks in my Linux console and want to be notified by some kind of alarm, so I don't keep checking the progress of the task.

Is there a way to customize the alarm by specifying additional filters like "ERROR" message, etc? I think it will be a useful thing to have.

Anyone aware of such functionality in Linux?

Answer 1

tee the output to a script that checks for errors and beeps.

Answer 2

you could try the at command and get that to run some alert at a given time. Alternatively you could use the Evolution calendar.

Answer 3

It sounds to me like you want something like Growl for Linux.

For what you're describing, you might have some luck with Specto.

Alternately, try GNotify or Mumbles.

Answer 4

You can append your command with an invocation of notify-send, passing it the exit status of the previous command. However, the notification does not stay on screen for long, so you might want to write the exit status to your terminal first. Here is an example:

grep -r sex # this is just a dummy command that I made up
error=$? ; echo "Previous command exited with status $error"
notify-send "job complete" "exit status $error"

Play around with it, and take a look at the man page to see if it suites your needs.