notify-done

Tell you when a long command finishes.

Synopsis

notify-done [options] [--] command [args]

Description

notify-done runs a command as normal. When the command ends, it shows a desktop notice with the exit code and how long the command took, and prints the same on stderr:

notify-done: make build finished, exit 0, 4m12s

Start a long build, a terraform apply or a big copy, switch to another window, and the notice tells you when to come back. A failed command gets an urgent notice, which most desktops keep on screen until you dismiss it.

Short commands stay silent. When the command took less than 10 seconds, notify-done shows nothing at all, so you can put it in front of anything without getting a notice for every ls. --min changes the limit.

The command runs in your terminal as it would without notify-done. It reads your keyboard, its output goes straight to the screen, and its exit code comes back to you unchanged. notify-done never reads or changes the output.

Where the command starts

The command starts at the first word that is not an option of notify-done, or right after --. Everything from there on belongs to the command, so notify-done make -j4 -t passes -j4 and -t to make.

The title

The notice title is the command, cut short: the command name and the words after it, up to the first option, path or name=value, at most three words. terraform apply -auto-approve gives terraform apply, and rsync -a big/ backup:/srv/big/ gives rsync. -t sets your own title.

When there is no desktop

Over SSH, in a console with no graphical session, or when notify-send is missing or fails, notify-done rings the terminal bell instead and says so. Most terminal programs flash the tab or the window on a bell, and tmux marks the window. --bell always uses the bell and never tries the desktop.

notify-done counts a desktop as present when DISPLAY or WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set.

Options

The notice

The times use seconds with one decimal under 10 seconds, whole seconds under a minute, then minutes and seconds, then hours and minutes, as in 0.4s, 18s, 4m12s and 1h07m.

Pass-through

None. The words after the options are the command it runs.

Needs

notify-send from libnotify shows the desktop notice. It is optional. Without it you get the bell.

GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce and Cinnamon show the notices with nothing more to set up. A bare window manager such as i3 or sway needs a notification daemon, such as dunst or mako, running in the session.

Examples

A build

$ notify-done make build
go build -o bin/api ./cmd/api
notify-done: make build finished, exit 0, 4m12s

The desktop shows "make build" with "done in 4m12s".

A failure, with your own title

$ notify-done -t "EKS apply" terraform apply -auto-approve
Error: creating EKS Node Group: InvalidParameterException
notify-done: EKS apply failed, exit 1, 17m48s
$ echo $?
1

Over SSH

$ notify-done rsync -a big/ backup:/srv/big/
notify-done: rsync finished, exit 0, 2m03s
notify-done: no desktop, rang the terminal bell instead

A short command stays quiet

$ notify-done -v true
+ true
notify-done: it took 0.0s, under --min 10s, so no notice

Without -v it prints nothing at all.

The exact notice it sends

$ notify-done -v --min 0 -t "EKS apply" terraform apply -auto-approve
+ terraform apply -auto-approve
Error: creating EKS Node Group: InvalidParameterException
notify-done: EKS apply failed, exit 1, 17m48s
+ notify-send -u critical -- 'EKS apply' 'failed with exit 1 after 17m48s'

In a pipeline or a script

$ notify-done --min 60 -- ./backup.sh && echo ok

notify-done exits with the command's code, so &&, || and set -e work as they would without it.

Troubleshooting

No notice appears, but no bell either

notify-send ran and exited 0, but no daemon showed it. Check that a notification daemon runs, and that your desktop does not have "do not disturb" on.

notify-done: no notify-send, rang the terminal bell instead. Install it with: sudo apt install libnotify-bin

You have a desktop, but notify-send is missing. Install the package the line names.

notify-done: no desktop, rang the terminal bell instead on my own desktop

DISPLAY and WAYLAND_DISPLAY are both empty in this terminal, which happens inside sudo -i, su - and some tmux sessions started before you logged in to the desktop. Run notify-done as your own user, or update the variables with tmux show-environment.

The bell makes no sound

Many terminals turn the audible bell off and show a visual one, or none. Look for "bell" in your terminal's settings. The bell goes to stderr, so 2>/dev/null also hides it.

notify-done: mycmd: command not found

The name is not a program on your PATH. Shell aliases and functions only exist in your shell. Run them through bash -ic 'mycmd'.

Exit status

See also

again, timer, notify-send(1)