dunstify

Show a notification with a given title and message

$ dunstify "[Title]" "[Message]"

$ dunstify "[Title]" "[Message]" [[-u|--urgency]] [low|normal|critical]

$ dunstify "[Title]" "[Message]" [[-r|--replace]] [123]

$ dunstify [[-?|--help]]

dunstify [OPTIONS] "summary" ["body"]

-A , --action
    Defines an action that can be activated from the notification. Useful for interactive notifications.

-a , --appname
    Overrides the default application name associated with the notification.

-c , --category
    Sets the notification category (e.g., 'device', 'email'). Affects rules in Dunst configuration.

-D, --close-on-click
    Makes the notification close automatically when clicked.

-h , --hint
    Adds a hint for the notification daemon. Common types include 'int', 'string', 'double', 'byte', 'boolean'. Examples: 'int:value:100' for progress.

-i , --icon
    Specifies an icon to display alongside the notification. Can be a path to an image file or a themed icon name.

-I , --id
    Sets a specific ID for the notification. This ID can be used to replace or update the notification later.

-N, --no-focus
    Prevents the notification from attempting to switch focus to the associated application.

-p, --printid
    Prints the unique ID of the sent notification to standard output.

-r , --replace
    Replaces an existing notification with the specified ID with the new one.

-s, --sticky
    Makes the notification 'sticky', meaning it will not automatically time out and must be closed manually.

-t , --timeout
    Sets the timeout duration for the notification in milliseconds after which it automatically disappears.

-u , --urgency
    Sets the urgency level of the notification. Possible levels are 'low', 'normal', or 'critical'. This often affects its appearance.

-v, --version
    Displays the dunstify version information.

-H, --help
    Displays a help message with available options and usage.

dunstify is a command-line utility designed to send notifications to the Dunst notification daemon, a highly customizable and lightweight notification manager. It offers a straightforward interface for generating transient desktop notifications, allowing users to specify a wide array of attributes such as urgency level, display timeout, associated icon, and interactive actions. This tool is commonly employed in shell scripts, cron jobs, or directly from the command line to provide users with timely information, alerts, or status updates regarding system events or application processes.

As an integral part of the Dunst ecosystem, dunstify acts as a more powerful and flexible replacement for generic notification senders like notify-send for users who have Dunst installed. It fully leverages Dunst's extensive configuration capabilities, enabling precise control over the visual appearance and behavioral aspects of notifications, ensuring a consistent and personalized user experience.

dunstify relies entirely on the Dunst notification daemon being active. If Dunst is not running in the background, notifications sent via dunstify will not be displayed, although the command itself might exit without an error.

The "summary" argument is mandatory and typically provides a concise title or headline for the notification. The optional "body" argument allows for a more detailed and longer message, which is usually displayed below the summary in the notification window.

Hints (`-h`) provide a powerful way to send specific, non-standard information to Dunst. These hints can be used by Dunst's rules to alter a notification's behavior or appearance, for instance, displaying a progress bar, marking a notification as transient, or specific visual cues based on Dunst's configuration.

The dunstify command is an integral part of the Dunst notification daemon project, which began development around 2012-2013. Dunst was created to provide a lightweight, highly configurable, and less intrusive alternative to existing notification systems, focusing on adherence to the Desktop Notification Specification. dunstify emerged as the primary command-line interface for sending notifications directly to this daemon, ensuring users could leverage Dunst's advanced features from scripts and the terminal.

dunst(1), notify-send(1)