Bash script (or alias) using ssh & notify-send

[detroit/zero]

I have two computers on a LAN both using Jaunty.

I "administer" both computers and have passwordless ssh access to both systems. I'm trying to write a script (or an alias) so that I can send notification bubbles to the computers remotely. Issuing the command

ssh -X user@host 'DISPLAY=:0 notify-send "TEST MESSAGE."'

at a local terminal works like a charm - the notification bubble containing the message appears on the remote screen.

Since the text "TEST MESSAGE." is just an example used here, and the message I will want to send will vary every time, "TEST MESSAGE." has to be made into a variable. If I create an alias on each system, such as

alias chat='DISPLAY=:0 notify-send'

I can log in remotely, and at the remote prompt, simply enter

chat "FOO BAR."

and the quoted text, along with the quotes, is appended to the end of the aliased command.

In trying to create an alias or a script - let's name it 'chat' in either case - that resides locally but uses SSH to execute a remote command, setting the variable is proving to be quite a headache. Since the structure should be the same as the above example, I have to pass along the double quotes as input. In trying to do so, I keep getting errors such as, "Invalid number of options," or, "No summary specified."

In using an alias, structured like so

alias chat='ssh user@host DISPLAY=:0 notify-send'

I can send messages to the remote computer and have them appear on screen, but only if they are one or two words long - three words produces the "Invalid number of options" error.

In using a script, I have to assign the "QUOTED MESSAGE" to a variable, otherwise I get the "No summary specified" error - the same error as if you went to a local prompt and typed

notify-send ""

without any text between the quotes.

In trying to nest the variable inside those quotes, like this

ssh user@host DISPLAY=:0 notify-send "$1"

again produces errors. Exchanging the $1 variable for $@ causes the error to switch from one to the other.

Can anyone offer me pointers as to how I would pass a quoted string as a variable into a simple one-liner like this?

[ibuclaw]

function chat { ssh -X user@host 'DISPLAY=:0 notify-send "$@"'; }

Give that a whirl.

Regards
Iain

[detroit/zero]

function chat { ssh -X user@host 'DISPLAY=:0 notify-send "$@"'; }

Give that a whirl.

Regards
Iain

No go. The script executes without errors, but no message is displayed on the remote screen.

[detroit/zero]

The final, working copy:

#!/bin/bash
#
#Send messages through SSH to remote hosts' notify-osd
#
message="$@"
ssh -X user@host "DISPLAY=:0 notify-send \"$message\""
exit

I was close, I guess. Just had to get the quotes & escapes right.

[irfannp]

But running this script gives me error that command notify-send not found.

#!/bin/bash
#
#Send messages through SSH to remote hosts' notify-osd
#
message="$@"
ssh -X user@host "DISPLAY=:0 notify-send \"$message\""
exit

[detroit/zero]

So install it.

sudo apt-get install notify-send

[Belizeian]

E: Couldn't find package notify-send

[detroit/zero]

Ah, I see. The package has changed. notify-send is now provided by libnotify-bin.

A simple Google search would have told you as much.

[mohave]

Thanks Detroit/Zero very useful!

[jamesisin]

I keep seeing this solution come up but I am getting a dbus error when I try to run notify-send remotely. I am trying to display the message on whichever user happens to be signed in. Is that the problem? Or is it something else?

ssh user@remote 'DISPLAY=:0 notify-send "HELLO" "Some stuff."'