# Desktop notifications

Related articles

- GTK+
- Libcanberra

Desktop notifications are small, passive popup dialogs that notify the user of particular events in an asynchronous manner.

## Libnotify

Libnotify is an implementation of the Desktop Notifications Specification which provides support for GTK+ and Qt applications and is desktop independent: it is already used by many open source apps like Evolution and Pidgin. Libnotify can be installed with the package libnotify, available in the official repositories.

In order to use libnotify, you have to install a notification server.

## Notification servers

### Built-in

The following desktop environments use their own implementations to display notifications, and you cannot replace them. Their notification servers are started automatically on login to receive notifications from applications via DBus.

- Avant Window Navigator has a notification-daemon applet provided by awn-extras-applets.
- Cinnamon provides a notification server itself. Notifications are displayed at the top right corner of the screen.
- Enlightenment provides a notification server through its Notification module. Notifications are displayed at the top right corner of the screen.
- GNOME provides a notification server itself. Notifications are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
- KDE uses knotify4 from package kdebase-runtime to display notifications. Notifications are displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen.

### Standalone

In other desktop environments, the notification server is launched on the first call via DBus. You can choose one of the following implementations:

- dunst is a minimalistic notification daemon for Linux designed to fit nicely into minimalistic windowmanagers like dwm.
- notification-daemon is the notification server used by GNOME Flashback. It does not have a D-Bus service file by default. To use it outside from GNOME Flashback, create the following file:

    /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.Notifications.service

    [D-BUS Service]
    Name=org.freedesktop.Notifications
    Exec=/usr/lib/notification-daemon-1.0/notification-daemon

- mate-notification-daemon is a notification server for MATE, available in the official repositories.
- notify-osd is a notification server for Unity, available in the official repositories.
- statnot is a small, lightweight notification daemon that can output notifications to the root window's title, stdout or FIFO pipes, making it integrate very well with tiling window managers. It's available in the Arch User Repository or as a git repo.
- twmn-git is a notification system for tiling window managers. It's available in the Arch User Repository or as a git repo.
- xfce4-notifyd is a notification server for Xfce, available in the official repositories.

  Tip: To configure xfce4-notifyd, run the following command in the terminal: `xfce4-notifyd-config`.

## Usage in programming

You can write your own libnotify display messages easily in many programming languages through GObject-Introspection or bindings, or you can simply use bash.

The following examples display simple a "Hello world" notification.

Bash

- Dependency: libnotify

    hello_world.sh

    #!/bin/bash
    notify-send 'Hello world!' 'This is an example notification.' --icon=dialog-information

Tip: An overview on the available icons can be found here.

Boo

- Dependency: notify-sharp-3 (boo)
- Makedependency: boo
- Build with: `booc hello_world.boo`
- Run with: `mono hello_world.exe` (or `booi hello_world.boo`)

    hello_world.boo

    import Notifications from "notify-sharp"
    Hello = Notification()
    Hello.Summary  = "Hello world!"
    Hello.Body     = "This is an example notification."
    Hello.IconName = "dialog-information"
    Hello.Show()

C

- Dependency: libnotify
- Build with: `gcc -o hello_world `pkg-config --cflags --libs libnotify` hello_world.c`

    hello_world.c

    #include <libnotify/notify.h>
    void main () {
    	notify_init ("Hello world!");
    	NotifyNotification * Hello = notify_notification_new ("Hello world", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information");
    	notify_notification_show (Hello, NULL);
    	g_object_unref(G_OBJECT(Hello));
    	notify_uninit();
    }

C++

- Dependency: libnotifymm from AUR
- Build with: `g++ -o hello_world `pkg-config --cflags --libs libnotifymm-1.0` hello_world.cc`

    hello_world.cc

    #include <libnotifymm.h>
    int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    	Notify::init("Hello world!");
    	Notify::Notification Hello("Hello world", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information");
            Hello.show();
    }

C#

- Dependency: notify-sharp-3
- Build with: `mcs -pkg:notify-sharp-3.0 hello_world.cs`
- Run with: `mono hello_world.exe`

    hello_world.cs

    using Notifications;
    public class HelloWorld {
    	static void Main() {
    		var Hello = new Notification();
    		Hello.Summary  = "Hello world!";
    		Hello.Body     = "This is an example notification.";
    		Hello.IconName = "dialog-information";
    		Hello.Show();
    	}
    }

Cobra

- Dependency: notify-sharp-3
- Makedependency: cobra from AUR
- Build with: `cobra -c hello_world`
- Run with: `mono hello_world.exe`

    hello_world.cs

    @args -pkg:notify-sharp-3.0
    use Notifications
    class HelloWorld
        def main
            hello = Notification()
            hello.summary  = "Hello world!"
            hello.body     = "This is an example notification."
            hello.iconName = "dialog-information"
            hello.show

F#

- Dependency: notify-sharp-3
- Makedependency: fsharp from AUR
- Build with: `fsharpc -r:notify-sharp.dll -I:/usr/lib/mono/notify-sharp-3.0/ -I:/usr/lib/mono/gtk-sharp-3.0/ hello_world.fs`
- Run with: `mono hello_world.exe`

    hello_world.fs

    open Notifications
    let Hello = new Notification()
    Hello.Summary  <- "Hello world!"
    Hello.Body     <- "This is an example notification."
    Hello.IconName <- "dialog-information"
    Hello.Show()

Genie

- Dependency: libnotify
- Makedependency: vala
- Build with: `valac --pkg libnotify hello_world.gs`

    hello_world.gs

    uses
    	Notify

    init
    	Notify.init ("Hello world")
    	var Hello=new Notification ("Hello world!","This is an example notification.","dialog-information")
    	Hello.show ()

Groovy

- Dependencies: groovy, java-gnome from AUR
- Build with: `groovyc -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar HelloWorld.groovy && jar cfe HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld HelloWorld.class`
- Run with: `java -cp /usr/share/groovy/embeddable/groovy-all.jar:/usr/share/java/gtk.jar:HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld` (or `groovy -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar HelloWorld.groovy`)

    HelloWorld.groovy

    import org.gnome.gtk.*
    import org.gnome.notify.*

    Gtk.init()
    Notify.init("Hello world")
    def Hello = new Notification("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information")
    Hello.show()

Java

- Dependency: java-gnome from AUR
- Makedependency: java-environment
- Build with: `javac -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar HelloWorld.java && jar cfe HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld HelloWorld.class`
- Run with: `java -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar:HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld`

    HelloWorld.java

    import org.gnome.gtk.Gtk;
    import org.gnome.notify.Notify;
    import org.gnome.notify.Notification;

    public class HelloWorld
    {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            Gtk.init(args);
            Notify.init("Hello world");
            Notification Hello = new Notification("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information");
            Hello.show();
        }
    }

JavaScript

- Dependencies: libnotify, gjs (works also with seed)

    hello_world.js

    #!/usr/bin/gjs
    #!/usr/bin/gjs
    const Notify = imports.gi.Notify;
    Notify.init ("Hello world");
    var Hello=new Notify.Notification ({summary: "Hello world!",
                                        body: "This is an example notification.",
                                        "icon-name": "dialog-information"});
    Hello.show ();

Lua

- Dependencies: libnotify, lua-lgi

    hello_world.lua

    #!/usr/bin/lua
    lgi = require 'lgi'
    Notify = lgi.require('Notify')
    Notify.init("Hello world")
    Hello=Notify.Notification.new("Hello world","This is an example notification.","dialog-information")
    Hello:show()</nowiki>

Perl

- Dependencies: libnotify, perl-glib-object-introspection from AUR

    hello_world.pl

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use Glib::Object::Introspection;
    Glib::Object::Introspection->setup (
    	basename => 'Notify',
    	version => '0.7',
    	package => 'Notify');
    Notify->init;
    my $hello = Notify::Notification->new("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information");
    $hello->show;

Python

- Dependencies: libnotify, python-gobject (or python2-gobject for Python 2)

    hello_world.py

    #!/usr/bin/python
    from gi.repository import Notify
    Notify.init ("Hello world")
    Hello=Notify.Notification.new ("Hello world","This is an example notification.","dialog-information")
    Hello.show ()

Ruby

- Dependencies: libnotify, ruby-gir-ffi from AUR

    hello_world.rb

    #!/usr/bin/ruby
    require 'gir_ffi'
    GirFFI.setup :Notify
    Notify.init("Hello world")
    Hello = Notify::Notification.new("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information")
    Hello.show

Scala

- Dependency: java-gnome from AUR (and scala)
- Makedependency: scala
- Build with: `scalac -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar -d HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld.scala`
- Run with: `java -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar:HelloWorld.jar HelloWorld` (or `scala -cp /usr/share/java/gtk.jar HelloWorld.scala`)

    HelloWorld.scala

    import org.gnome.gtk._
    import org.gnome.notify._

    object HelloWorld {
      def main(args: Array[String]) {
        Gtk.init(args)
        Notify.init("Hello world")
        var Hello = new Notification("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information")
        Hello.show()
      }
    }

Vala

- Dependency: libnotify
- Makedependency: vala
- Build with: `valac --pkg libnotify hello_world.vala`

    hello_world.vala

    using Notify;
    public class HelloWorld {
    	static void main () {
    		Notify.init ("Hello world");
    		var Hello = new Notification("Hello world!", "This is an example notification.", "dialog-information");
    		Hello.show ();
    	}
    }

Visual Basic .NET

- Dependency: notify-sharp-3
- Makedependency: mono-basic
- Build with: `vbnc -r:/usr/lib/mono/notify-sharp-3.0/notify-sharp.dll hello_world.vb`
- Run with: `mono hello_world.exe`

    hello_world.vb

    Imports Notifications
    Public Class Hello
    	Public Shared Sub Main
    		Dim Hello As New Notification
    		Hello.Summary  = "Hello world!"
    		Hello.Body     = "This is an example notification."
    		Hello.IconName = "dialog-information"
    		Hello.Show
    	End Sub
    End Class

## See also

- Libnotify Reference Manual
- C example
- Python example (french article)

Categories:

- X Server
- Development