Libnotify implements the Desktop Notification Specification.
Libnotify provides the notify-send CLI utility.
# apt-get install libnotify-bin
A notification daemon must be running to actually display notifications. Dunst is a minimal notification daemon suitable for tiling window managers. Notify-OSD is the notification daemon for Ubuntu Unity. Gnome has its own built-in notification daemon.
$ apt-get install dunst
Dunst can be configured with $HOME/.config/dunst/dunstrc.
See dunst(1).
Send notifications with notify-send:
--- bava !5171 ~ % notify-send --urgency=critical "The thing\!"
--- bava !5173 ~ % notify-send --help
Usage:
notify-send [OPTION?] <SUMMARY> [BODY] - create a notification
Help Options:
-?, --help Show help options
Application Options:
-u, --urgency=LEVEL Specifies the urgency level (low, normal, critical).
-t, --expire-time=TIME Specifies the timeout in milliseconds at which to expire the notification.
-a, --app-name=APP_NAME Specifies the app name for the icon
-i, --icon=ICON[,ICON...] Specifies an icon filename or stock icon to display.
-c, --category=TYPE[,TYPE...] Specifies the notification category.
-h, --hint=TYPE:NAME:VALUE Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are int, double, string and byte.
-v, --version Version of the package.