Notify-send HOWTO

[DeusEx]

Notify-send is a little, simple On-Screen Display application. It uses the notify bubble (or balloon?) pop-up system as seen in 9.10 Karmic.

Despite its usage is very simple you can have a lot of fun with it. Let's install it first:

sudo apt-get install notify-osd

Now this command should pop up a 'bubble':

notify-send Test "Hello World"

The --help option shows basic usage:

$notify-send --help
Usage:                             
  notify-send [OPTION...] <SUMMARY> [BODY] - create a notification                                                    

Help Options:
  -?, --help                        Show help options

Application 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.
  -h, --hint=TYPE:NAME:VALUE        Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are int, double, string and byte.
  -v, --version                     Version of the package.

Some examples:

1. Basic message with an icon in front of the Title showing 5000 milliseconds

notify-send "Message Title" "The message body is shown here" -i /usr/share/pixmaps/idle.xpm -t 5000

2. Show contents of a file:

notify-send test "`tail /var/log/syslog`"

3. Follow log file:

tail -n0 -f /var/log/messages | while read line; do notify-send "System Message" "$line"; done

4. Format message with HTML:

notify-send Test "<font size=16 color=blue><b><i>Hello World</b></i></font>"

[mohave]

To help anyone in my case: if notify-send can't be found to be installed in your system install first libnotify-bin.

And just a comment: the HTML sample is not working in my system...maybe anyother library is required ¿?

Thank you DeusEx !

[DeusEx]

Odd, I don't have a notify-bin package in my repositories. My version of notify-osd is 0.9.24, and for notify-send it's 0.4.5. Perhaps your DBUS version doesn't like the HTML?

BTW I made a typo, the package to install should be notify-osd (updated first post). the command to send messages is notify-send...

[Icegirl]

Alguien sabe si el icono tiene que tener caracteristicas específicas para ser mostrado?. No logro que me aparezcan

[sossanator]

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

[baddnady23]

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

I'm going to bump this, great idea

[MeduZa]

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

you can try with notifyme and notify-send

notifyme -C `cat /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1`

[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/.

[dualbus]

Alguien sabe si el icono tiene que tener caracteristicas específicas para ser mostrado?. No logro que me aparezcan

Las reglas de ubuntuforums especifican que debes comunicarte en inglés.
Ubuntuforums rules specify that you must communicate in English.


Not all GNU/Linux distros have the same icons, so before you use them, you should check that they exist:

file /path/to/file

If they do exist, then you can use them with notify-send as specified above.

[Covi]

Las reglas de ubuntuforums especifican que debes comunicarte en inglés.
Ubuntuforums rules specify that you must communicate in English.


Not all GNU/Linux distros have the same icons, so before you use them, you should check that they exist:

file /path/to/file

If they do exist, then you can use them with notify-send as specified above.

Tampoco hace falta ser desagradable.
To be unpleasant is not necessary either.



Lucid, notify-send 0.4.5 (libnotify-bin 0.4.5-1ubuntu4): html format doesn't work :S