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

[geo909]

Thanks for this thread! This is an amazing idea

[go_beep_yourself]

Don't forget to install blinkd to use this script.

sudo apt-get install blinkd

I use it because it works with the leds on desktop keyboards, not just laptops. The mled software doesn't work for desktops.

[vulcanfk]

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I just came across this and thought it was a great idea. I had trouble getting this script to work for a domain account though, so I figured I'd share the updated script in case anyone else was trying to do the same thing.

The user/password had to be pulled out of the URL. Since they contained '@', they were confusing wget. Use the following instead. Note: be sure to surround your username/password in quotes.

un="user@domain.com"
pw="password"
mails="$(wget --secure-protocol=TLSv1 --http-user=${un} --http-password=${pw} \
--timeout=3 -t 1 -q -O - \
https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom \
--no-check-certificate | grep 'fullcount' \
| sed -e 's/.*<fullcount>//;s/<\/fullcount>.*//' 2>/dev/null)"

<insert chosen flavor of alerting of emails>

Also, I've found that the mail/feed/atom/important tag always returns a fullcount of 0, even with unread messages. I'm not sure why this is, but it's annoying. Anyone have ideas about it?

[oldos2er]

If a post is older than a year or so and hasn't had a new reply in that time, instead of replying to it, create a new thread. In the software world, a lot can change in a very short time, and doing things this way makes it more likely that you will find the best information. You may link to the original discussion in the new thread if you think it may be helpful.