Notify-send HOWTO

[cgroza]

Thanks, you helped me improve my script's notification system.

[DrAcid]

Btw, if anyone is interested, after Karmic(or jaunty, I'm not sure) -t timeout parameter is broken.

Lately a guy named Sukochev Roman [leolik] has been working on notify-osd a lot!
ThanX to him, now we have a pretty customizable notifications!
He has fixed the timeout issue as well!

Here's an article from webupd8 on how to customize the messages:
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/final...ze-notify.html

* Edit:

If Your notify bubbles flicker on fade in/out --> disable "Fading Windows" in Compiz 'Effects' group...

[averlon]

Hi,
I have successfully used notify-send in an interactive shell and in scripts.

But if an script is started via cron, notify-send does not work.

Any hints?

[cream wobbly]

Hi,
I have successfully used notify-send in an interactive shell and in scripts.

But if an script is started via cron, notify-send does not work.

Any hints?

I'm a RHEL user, so paths might be different in Ubuntu.

You need to allow local root user to display to the current X session. Create a new file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/localroot.sh, containing the command:

xhost +si:localuser:root

When X starts next time, this new script will be sourced from the script /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc-common. You can do it to a running session by having the session owner (whoever logged in) type the full xhost command exactly as above.

Now your cron command can say:

DISPLAY=:0  notify-send ...

[averlon]

Hi cream wobbly,
thanks for the reply.
although ubuntu seems to have a different file structure, since /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d does not exist.

I am not sure how to setup it here but I will find the way through now.

Thanks again for your good help.

[averlon]

Hi,
so far it was not possible for me to identify the path where to make the appropriate changes in ubuntu.

When I enter the xhost-command in a terminal window the cron-job using the

DISPLAY=:0  notify-send ...

works.

If i enter the xhost command and the notify-send inside the cron-job, although the job is run as root, it does not work.

Could you give me a hint where to search and find out what file structure in ubuntu is according to the file structure you reported from RHEL.
Thanks

[ryran]

Does anyone know the code if i want it to notify me if someone logs in like via ssh?

I'm a little late, but... The question inspired me to write a bash script to do just that. You can get it here, at my github. (Or here, for direct-download.)

But here's the simple answer: What you need is something like this.

sudo tail -fn0 /var/log/secure  |
  grep --line-buffered "sshd.*Accepted" |
    while read line; do
      notify-send -u critical "SSH LOGIN" "$line"
    done

Or, more spiffy-like:

#WARNING: The following uses some special BASH features, meaning, it won't work in dash.

sudo tail -fn0 /var/log/secure |
  grep --line-buffered 'sshd.*Accepted' |
    while read line; do
      timestamp=${line/ $(hostname)*/}
      ip=${line#*from }; ip=${ip% port*}
      msg=${line#*]: }
      notify-send -u critical "sshd: Session initiated by $ip" "[$timestamp]\n$msg"
    done

The script I linked above also prints notifications for failed login attempts. Hope someone finds it useful!

Edit: In my sleep-deprived stupor I forgot to link the screenshots I took. Here's two. The rest are at http://b19.org/linux/notify_sshd/.

[mohave]

Appreciate, ryran, works great!!
(in my k-ubuntu release Oneiric, just changing /var/log/secure by /var/log/auth.log)

Thanks!

[ryran]

Updated the script I linked in my previous comment. Same link. It worked fine before, but error-handling and cleanup is quite better now (e.g., if you execute it multiple times, it doesn't leave any orphaned tail processes hanging about), and I took into account the whole /var/log/secure VS /var/log/auth.log thing. (THANKS mohave!)

[ryran]

WOW! My previous post was only a week ago?! Man, since then I've learned a whole new programming language...

In any case, I almost completely rewrote the script from before (edited the link). Still BASH, but now it's called tail2notify. It is much more generic (takes parameters to pass to tail & grep); however, it can still meet the original goal of notifications on ssh logins. Peace!