Script to check gmail account with LED notification (Laptop users...)

[El_Belgicano]

Here is the script I'm using to check my gmail account automatically and give me a notification by the LED on my laptop, if you don't know how to enable your LED, I refer to the Pedric's Howto (see credits)

#!/bin/bash
gmail_login="xxxxxx"
gmail_password="xxxxx"
mails="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://${gmail_login}:${gmail_password}@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"
if [ "$mails" -gt "0" ];
then
	for ((i = 0; i < 10; i++)) do
		echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/mled;
		sleep 0.8;
		echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/mled;
		sleep 0.5;
	done
fi
exit

save the script somewhere and make it executable.

You also need to create a crontab entry for this to run every time you define:
(I'm running it every 5 minutes)

00 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
05 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
10 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
15 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
20 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
25 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
30 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
35 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
40 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
45 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
50 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh
55 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh

Credits:
- Gmail bash script from dbbolton
- Howto: LED-notification by Pedric

[K.Mandla]

Moved to General Help.

[pointone]

Instead of multiple entries in crontab, use the following code to run every 5 minutues:

*/5 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh

[ChameleonDave]

That script is no good, because it relies on certain hardware.

This should work on any computer.

sudo apt-get install blinkd

#!/bin/bash
gmail_login="XXXX"
gmail_password="XXXX"
mails="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://${gmail_login}:${gmail_password}@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"
if [ "$mails" -gt "0" ];
then
blink --scrolllockled --rate=$mails;
else
blink -s --rate=0;
fi
exit

The rate of blinking tells you how many mails are waiting for you.

If you get a lot of mails, you could change the zero in the "if" line to two or three, so that it only bothers you when there are more mails to read. If you're happy with it alerting you of every e-mail, you could simplify the code by removing all the lines in italics in the script.

To "snooze" it (tell it to give you another five minutes to get to gmail, type "blink -sr 0". You could make a launcher for that and stick it on your desktop.

To tell it to stop annoying you for the rest of the session, kill the daemon. ("sudo killall blinkd")

If the flashing doesn't work, make sure that the daemon is running. ("sudo blinkd")

[tom957]

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen (computer-related, that is).

[Xavier Oddmon]

This is significantly awesome, but I figured voice would make it better. Here's mine:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Checking for new email";
mailsa="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://name1:password1@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"

echo $mailsa;

mailsb="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://name2:password2@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"

echo $mailsb;

#blink LEDs
if [ "$mailsa" -gt "0" ];
then
	blink -s -r 5;
fi

if [ "$mailsb" -gt "0" ];
then
	blink -c -r 5;
fi

#speak announcements

if [ "$mailsa" -gt "0" ];
then
	espeak "$mailsa new emails in main account.";
fi
if [ "$mailsb" -gt "0" ];
then
	espeak "$mailsb new emails in secondary account.";
fi

sleep 4;
blink;

exit

It checks two email accounts. Notice that I did away with the variables containing the name and password and stuck them right in the URL. Don't remember why...

Now, i'd like to know, is there any way to make this code more secure, IE not having my password in plain text?

[paradigm2]

Originally Posted by pointone Instead of multiple entries in crontab, use the following code to run every 5 minutues: */5 * * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh

Just for anyone else kind of new who has their computer in the bedroom :

*/5 9-23 * * * .scripts/gmailLED.sh

For instance should make it run only from 9am - 11pm local time (I believe local, if not UTC?]

Haven't tested it but it should work.

[go_beep_yourself]

I've been modifying and working on my own version of this script. Here it is. You guys try this out and see what how you like it.

PHP Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ crontab -l
# m h  dom mon dow   command
0 * * * * mv /tmp/motion/*.swf /home/chris/Videos/Webcam/
*/5 * * * * /home/chris/bin/mailblinker &> /dev/null
chris@ubuntu:~$ 


PHP Code:

chris@ubuntu:~$ which mailblinker 
/home/chris/bin/mailblinker
chris@ubuntu:~$ cat $(which mailblinker)
#!/bin/bash
gmail_login="xxxxxxx"
gmail_password="xxxxxxxx"
mails="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://${gmail_login}:${gmail_password}@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"
# Use this below to check mail from specific labels or put all to check all mails
# https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom/cakes

# blinkd only accepts blink rates of 0-29
if [ "$mails" -gt 29 ];
then
  mails=29
fi

if [ "$mails" -gt 0 ];
then
  blink -c --rate=$mails
  mplayer /home/chris/Downloads/sms-received5.caf &> /dev/null
else
  blink -c --rate=0;
fi
exit
chris@ubuntu:~$ 


To make this script work, you are going to have to put in your personal information and paths replacing mine. I've included the sound file I that plays "You've got mail!". And you will need to extract it and put the path and filename to it in the script. You need to chmod +x the script. I also might modify the script to say who the new mail(s) are from. Also having the script in ~/bin is nice because that puts it in my path, and I can type mailblinker from any directory to run the script just like any other command. If you want ~/bin to be in your path, then you need this in your ~/.profile

PHP Code:

 19 # set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists                                                                       
 20 if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then                                                                                                    
 21     PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"                                                                                                      
 22 fi 


Don't put the line numbers. Vim puts those line numbers in, and I copied it from there. If my thread helped anyone, push the thanks button.

[geo909]

Thanks for this thread! This is an amazing idea