README.md

hey_dummy

Hey Dummy!, your long-running process has finished/failed!

Version 2.x.x

Version 2.x.x is drastically different from Version 1.0.0 The paradigm of Version 1.0.0 was to pass a bunch of command line options to hey_dummy in order to fire the alert correctly. Version 2.0.0+ is about passing the needed values to a completely separate script in order to make customizing alerts easier.

$HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER

As of Version 2.0.0, $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER is a required environment variable representing the alert script that hey_dummy should trigger when the commands run w/it finish. You should export $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER in your .bashrc or .bash_profile file as appropriate.

export HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER='/path/to/alert/script'

If $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER is not set when hey_dummy runs, hey_dummy will fail, and the command you passed to it will not run. Instead, you'll see:

HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER not set!

What does hey_dummy actually do now, then?

As before, hey_dummy runs everything you pass as command line arguments. However, instead of controlling the alert itself, hey_dummy passes the result status of the passed command to the script designated with $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER. It also passes the entirety of the passed command to the $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER script (after the result code). It also exits with the same status as the command it was passed.

OS X growlnotify Example

Prior to Version 2.0.0, using growlnotify with hey_dummy was done like this:

hey_dummy -n growlnotify -b "-m" long_running_osx_process

Now (2.0.0+) instead, create a script containing the following:

#!/bin/bash
growl_path='/usr/local/bin/growlnotify'

status_code=$1
command_name=$2

# alternately:
# status_code=$1
# shift
# whole_command=$@

if [[ $status_code == 0 ]]; then
    text="$command_name finished"
else
    text="$command_name FAILED"
fi

$GROWL -m "$text" Hey Dummy!

Export path to script:

export $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER='/path/to/above/script'

And every time you run hey_dummy, it will execute /path/to/above/script.

This is a GIANT change!

Yes, it is, but it should give you much more flexibility in the ways you want to alert yourself that something is done. For example, I can now make my blink(1) blink, play a sound, and use growlnotify by creating a custom $HEY_DUMMY_NOTIFIER script.

In case you're curious:

#!/bin/bash
AFPLAY='/usr/bin/afplay'
BLINK='~/bin/blink1-tool'
GROWL='/usr/local/bin/growlnotify'

result=$1
shift

if [[ $result == 0 ]]; then
    color='--green'
    sfx="~/sfx/work-complete.wav"
    text="$1 finished"
else
    color='--red'
    sfx="~/sfx/kaboom.wav"
    text="$1 FAILED"
fi

$BLINK --quiet $color --glimmer=3 &
$AFPLAY $sfx &
$GROWL -m "$text" Hey Dummy!