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https://github.com/phillbush/xnotify

read notifications from stdin and pop them up on the screen
https://github.com/phillbush/xnotify

c imlib2 notification notifications unix x11 xlib

Last synced: 11 days ago
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read notifications from stdin and pop them up on the screen

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README 

        
# XNotify



![demo](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/63266536/93797439-c65d0680-fc2b-11ea-80e3-10bbd6f65dcb.gif)



XNotify displays a notification on the screen.

XNotify receives a notification specification in stdin and shows a

notification for the user on the screen.



XNotify comes with the following features:



* XNotify receives notifications from stdin.

  You can use a fifo to echo notifications on the fly like

  `echo Hello World > /path/to/xnotify.fifo`

* XNotify queues notifications and displays them one above the other.

* Image support, just prefix the notification string with

  `IMG:/path/to/the/file.png` and a tab.

* Multiple monitor support.  You can set the monitor with the `-m` option.

* Support for fallback fonts (you can set more than one fonts, that will

  be tried in order).

* X resources support (you don't need to recompile Xnotify for

  configuring it).



## Options



XNotify understands the following command-line options:



* `-b button`:  Specify the action button.

* `-g gravity`: Specify the screen corner/border to place notifications at.

* `-h height`:  Specify the maximum height of a notification popup.

* `-m monitor`: Specify the monitor to place notifications at.

* `-o`:         Only one notification at a time.

* `-r`:         Also read notifications from root window name (in

                addition to read from standard input).

* `-s seconds`: Specify the time in seconds notifications are visible.

* `-w`:         Let the window manager control notification popups.



## Customization



XNotify can be customized by setting the following X resources.



* `alignment`:   Text alignment (left, center, or right).

* `background`:  Background color.

* `borderColor`: Border color.

* `borderWidth`: Border width in pixels.

* `faceName`:    Font.

* `foreground`:  Text color.

* `gap`:         Gap between notifications, in pixels.

* `gravity`:     Screen corner/border to place notifications at.

* `leading`:     Space between lines.

* `maxHeight`:   Maximum notification height.

* `opacity`:     Notification opacity from 0.0 to 1.0.

* `shrink`:      Whether to shrink notifications to its content size.

* `padding`:     Margin around the content.

* `wrap`:        Whether to wrap long lines.



## Installation



Run `make all` to build, and `make install` to install the binary and the

manual into `${PREFIX}` (`/usr/local`).



## Usage



XNotify receives as input one line per notification.

Each line is made out of a notification title and a notification body separated by any number of tabs.

Lines without a title are ignored.



The following is an example of how to run XNotify



	$ xnotify -m 10 -G NE -g -10+10 -s 15



This line means: read notifications from stdin, display

the notifications on the north east (`-G NE`) of the monitor 0 (`-m 0`),

that is, on the upper right corner of the first monitor.  The

notifications should be placed 10 pixels to the left and 10 pixels

down (thus creating a 10 pixel gap with the upper right corner).

Each notification stay alive for 15 seconds.



To create a named pipe for XNotify, you can place the following in the beginning of your `~/.xinitrc`.

This will create a named pipe unique to your current X display in your home directory at `~/.cache`.

Then, it will open xnotify in the background, reading from this named pipe.



	XNOTIFY_FIFO="$HOME/.cache/xnotify$DISPLAY.fifo"

	export XNOTIFY_FIFO

	rm -f $XNOTIFY_FIFO

	mkfifo $XNOTIFY_FIFO

	xnotify 0<>$XNOTIFY_FIFO



Note that the first two lines (the line setting the environment variable and the line exporting it)

should be at the beginning of your `~/.xinitrc`, so other programs you invoke are aware of this variable.



To create a notification with a image, input to XNotify a line beginning

with `IMG:/path/to/file.png` followed by a tab.  For example:



	$ printf 'IMG:/path/to/file.png\tThis is a notification\n' > $XNOTIFY_FIFO



To read dbus notifications from stdin, you'll need [tiramisu](https://github.com/Sweets/tiramisu).

Then add the following line to your `.xinitrc`, after the line calling xnotify.



	$ tiramisu -o "$(printf '#summary\t#body\n')" > $XNOTIFY_FIFO &



To use a different size other than the default for the notifications,

run `xnotify` with the `-g` option set to the notification size in

`WIDTHxHEIGHT`.  For example:



	$ xnotify -g 300x80



The argument for the `-g` option has the form `[WIDTHxHEIGHT][{+-}XPOS{+-}YPOS]`.

Parts between square brackets are optional.

`{+-}` means to chose either `+` or `-`.



## License



The code and manual are under the MIT/X license.

See ./LICENSE for more information.



## Epilogue



**Read the manual.**