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I want to write scripts on Ubuntu that will notify the user through a tool analogous to Growl on OS X (specifically, the growlnotify command-line tool). What's the equivalent tool on Linux called?

Raystafarian
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dan
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3 Answers3

25

Ubuntu can show notifications, which seem to be equivalent to Growl. It is accessible through DBus (for programs) and through the notify-send command (for shell scripts).

u1686_grawity
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Manu
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    And how does it work, what's the `growlnotify` equivalent? – Daniel Beck Jan 19 '11 at 22:06
  • I think it's possible to send notifications from the command line, but I can't seem to find the exact command. – Manu Jan 19 '11 at 22:07
  • I believe the command is notify-send : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=642997 – Manu Jan 19 '11 at 22:10
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    Now it's a useful answer ;-) Try editing your answer to incorporate that information. Also the `zenity` and `knotify` mentions on the forum are probably worth looking into. – Daniel Beck Jan 19 '11 at 22:12
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    I would like to add that `notify-osd` in Ubuntu (which displays `notify-send` notifications) has a couple of -horrible- bugs (called "features", **seriously**) including being unable to set the timeout (even though the `-t` parameter is documented in `notify-send`) on bubbles and not being able to show multiple bubbles at once. For me, this renders notify-osd unusable and while there are patches available, I'm looking for an alternative. This is currently the best fit for me: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-never-miss-an-ubuntu-notification-again – Jaap Haagmans Jan 17 '14 at 14:46
7

There is a Growl port for Linux. Found here: Growl-for-linux

dbarrett83
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    This is only the growl daemon, it doesn't include the growlnotify command. What is a growl *client* for linux that can send growl messages? – Will Sheppard Nov 06 '13 at 12:34
  • The linux equivalent of growlnotify is gntp-send. You can grab the [source](https://github.com/mattn/gntp-send) here and build it yourself. I have a question here that covers the [process of using this](https://superuser.com/questions/471590/how-do-i-use-gntp-send), but more or less the command reads as `gntp-send -a "App Name" -s host-ip-address -p "password" "title" "test"` where the host ip address is the ip address for the system you want to send the notifications to. – Journeyman Geek Feb 25 '18 at 06:59
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if you are using KDE, it is real easy! just use the kdialog command that is built-in to KDE, as in the example below:

kdialog --passivepopup "Example text"

if you happen to be using plain ubuntu, then you need to install the libnotify-bin package by issuing the following command:

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

and then you can send messages with like this:

notify-send "Example text"

the kdialog is a bit more interesting because it does way more than just send notifications from the command-line. you can actually build an interactive gui for your bash programs with it!

anyway, i hope this helps.

Peter Carrero
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