# 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.

- 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 extension. Notification options are configurable.
- GNOME provides a notification server itself. Notifications are displayed at the top of the screen.
- KDE 4 uses knotify4 from package kdebase-runtime to display notifications. Notifications are displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- KDE Plasma 5 provides a notification server itself. 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:

- Avant Window Navigator — A notification-daemon applet is available for AWN.

  https://github.com/p12tic/awn-extras || awn-extras-appletsAUR

- Dunst — Minimalistic notification daemon for Linux designed to fit nicely into minimalistic windowmanagers like dwm.

  http://www.knopwob.org/dunst/ || dunst

- LXQt Notification Daemon — Notification server for LXQt.

  https://github.com/lxde/lxqt-notificationd || lxqt-notificationd

- Notification Daemon — The notification server used by GNOME Flashback.

  https://github.com/GNOME/notification-daemon || notification-daemon
  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 — Notification server for MATE.

  https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-notification-daemon/ || GTK+ 2: mate-notification-daemon, GTK+ 3 (experimental): mate-notification-daemon-gtk3

- Notify OSD — Notification server for Unity.

  https://launchpad.net/notify-osd || notify-osd

- statnot — 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.

  https://github.com/halhen/statnot || statnotAUR

- twmn — Notification system for tiling window managers.

  https://github.com/sboli/twmn || twmn-gitAUR

- Xfce Notification Daemon — Notification server for Xfce.

  http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-notifyd || xfce4-notifyd
  Tip: To configure xfce4-notifyd, run the following command: `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: libnotifymmAUR 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: cobraAUR 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: fsharpAUR 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-gnomeAUR 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-gnomeAUR 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
    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()

Perl

- Dependencies: libnotify, perl-glib-object-introspectionAUR 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_ffiAUR 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

Rust

- Dependencies: rust and cargo-binAUR (or just multirustAUR)
- notification crate: notify-rust

    hello_world.rs

    extern crate notify_rust;
    use notify_rust::Notification;
    fn main(){
        Notification::new()
            .summary("Hello world")
            .body("This is an example notification")
            .icon("dialog-information")
            .show();
    }

Scala

- Dependency: java-gnomeAUR 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