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Paul Nathan
Asked: 2011-06-09 09:50:25 +0800 CST

Triggering a UI message based on a terminal ssh'd to another server

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I am working in a multi-workspace multi-window configuration. I am constantly running scripts behind the scenes.

It would save me a lot of time and context switching if I could kick off a script on another server and have a message popup (growl notify or w/e) on my desktop letting me know that the command finished.

Is there a way to do that in Ubuntu 10?

command-line

2 Answers

  1. Here's one way to do it, assuming you have password-less SSH set up:

    ssh my-graphical-workstation 'env DISPLAY=$(w -s $USER | grep -m 1 " :" | awk "{print \$3}") notify-send "Done processing."'

    You'll need libnotify-bin Install libnotify-bin installed on my-graphical-workstation.

    Adjust it as necessary.

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  2. To augment the fine answer by @ændrük:

    you might need to allow the connection from the remote machine. At the simplest, use

    xhost +

    but you should restrict this to the target machine once working, if you do not want the whole world to open X11 windows on your machine. This is done automatically if you do ssh -X, but needs to be added manually if the ssh connection is not maintained.

    If you are always connected, just add a -X to your ssh parameter to have it do the setup for you, as in

    user@localhost:path$ ssh -X where_the_script_is_run
user@where_the_script_is_run:path$ run-script; xmessage 'whatever message'

    notify-send did not work for me remotely. You can use the (archaic) xmessage program.

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