TIP gmail-notify

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This article is part of the Tips & Tricks series.

Terminals / Shells • Network • X Window System • Portage • System • Filesystems • Kernel • Other

1 Introduction
2 Screenshot
3 Prerequesties
4 Installation
5 Lauching Command
6 Alternative
7 Links
8 Authors

[edit] Introduction

This article describes how to add notification icon to system tray.

[edit] Screenshot

[edit] Prerequesties

1) (Optional) You may install sunrise overlay for portage, but it is not necessary. More information you can find here Portage Overlay Listing

2) Create in your overlay category net-mail/gmail-notify

cd /usr/local/portage/
mkdir -p net-mail/gmail-notify
cd net-mail/gmail-notify

3) create file gmail-notify-1.6.1-r1.ebuild here with the following content

inherit python eutils

DESCRIPTION="Gmail Notifier is a Linux alternative for the notifier program rele
ased by Google"
HOMEPAGE="http://gmail-notify.sourceforge.net"
SRC_URI="mirror://sourceforge/${PN}/${P}.tar.gz"
LICENSE="GPL-2"

SLOT="0"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
IUSE=""
RESTRICT="strip"

RDEPEND="virtual/python
        >=dev-python/pygtk-2.0
        >=x11-libs/gtk+-2.4"
DEPEND="${RDEPEND}"

S=${WORKDIR}/${PN}

src_compile(){
    epatch ${FILESDIR}/notifier-home.patch
}

src_install() {
        python_version
        INST_DIR=/usr/lib/python${PYVER}/site-packages/${PN}

        #Install docs
        dodoc README notifier.conf.sample

        #Install all python files into site-packages
        insinto ${INST_DIR}
        doins *.py *.jpg *.png langs.xml pytrayicon.so

        #Install a script in /usr/bin
        echo "#!/bin/bash" > gmail-notify
        echo "export NOTIFIER_HOME=${INST_DIR}" >> gmail-notify
        echo "exec /usr/bin/python ${INST_DIR}/notifier.py \"\$1\"" >> gmail-not
ify
        dobin gmail-notify
        #make_wrapper gmail-notify "/usr/bin/python ${INST_DIR}/notifier.py"
}

pkg_postinst() {
        python_version
        python_mod_optimize /usr/lib/python${PYVER}/site-packages/${PN}
        elog "Run gmail-notify to start the program"
        elog ""
        elog "Warning: if you check the 'save username and password' option"
        elog "your password will be stored in plaintext in ~/.notifier.conf"
        elog "with world-readable permissions. If this concerns you, do not"
        elog "check the 'save username and password' option."
}

pkg_postrm() {
        python_version
        python_mod_cleanup /usr/lib/python${PYVER}/site-packages/${PN}
}

4) create directory files:

mkdir files

And file named files/notifier-home.patch with following content

diff -ur orig/GmailConfig.py src/GmailConfig.py
--- orig/GmailConfig.py 2005-09-25 20:12:11.000000000 +0300
+++ src/GmailConfig.py  2006-09-18 17:20:07.000000000 +0300
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import sys
+import os
 import pygtk
 pygtk.require('2.0')
-import os
 import gtk
 import ConfigParser
 import gmailatom
 import xmllangs
-import sys
 
-LANGSXML_PATH=sys.path[0]+"/langs.xml"
-ICON_PATH=sys.path[0]+"/gmail-notify-icon.png"
+NOTIFIER_HOME = os.getenv("NOTIFIER_HOME")
+if not NOTIFIER_HOME:
+       print "Environment variable NOTIFIER_HOME not set"
+       sys.exit(1)
+LANGSXML_PATH = NOTIFIER_HOME + "/langs.xml"
+ICON_PATH = NOTIFIER_HOME + "/gmail-notify-icon.png"
 
 class GmailConfigWindow:
 
diff -ur orig/notifier.py src/notifier.py
--- orig/notifier.py    2005-09-25 20:12:11.000000000 +0300
+++ src/notifier.py     2006-09-18 17:20:02.000000000 +0300
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # Uploaded by juan_grande 2005/02/24 18:38 UTC
+import sys
+import os
 import pygtk
 pygtk.require('2.0')
 import gtk
 import time
-import os
 import pytrayicon
-import sys
 import warnings
 import ConfigParser
 import xmllangs
@@ -15,9 +15,13 @@
 import GmailPopupMenu
 import gmailatom
 
-BKG_PATH=sys.path[0]+"/background.jpg"
-ICON_PATH=sys.path[0]+"/icon.png"
-ICON2_PATH=sys.path[0]+"/icon2.png"
+NOTIFIER_HOME = os.getenv("NOTIFIER_HOME")
+if not NOTIFIER_HOME:
+       print "Environment variable NOTIFIER_HOME not set"
+       sys.exit(1)
+BKG_PATH = NOTIFIER_HOME + "/background.jpg"
+ICON_PATH = NOTIFIER_HOME + "/icon.png"
+ICON2_PATH = NOTIFIER_HOME + "/icon2.png"
 
 def removetags(text):
        raw=text.split("<b>")

5) create digest

cd ..
ebuild gmail-notify-1.6.1-r1.ebuild digest

[edit] Installation

Installation is as simple as usual. The only thing you need is to unmask gmail-notify

echo "~net-mail/gmail-notify-1.6.1 ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
emerge -av gmail-notify

Edit by Blankoworld : Gmail-notify depends on the dev-perl/gtk2-trayicon package. Just run:

emerge dev-perl/gtk2-trayicon

[edit] Lauching Command

To launch Gmail-notify you have to set NOTIFIER_HOME environnement variable. So complete launching command like that :

NOTIFIER_HOME="/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gmail-notify/" /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gmail-notify/notifier.py

Note that I use python2.4, change this if you use another version of Python.

[edit] Alternative

I was also looking for a way to check my Google Mail account, and I even went as far as trying to install Gnome's dependency-bloated Mail Notification. I also emerged gmail-notify, but it failed to connect. I was, however, looking too far. It is enough to use Xfce's mailwatch-plugin. It has a simple interface and allows you to check several accounts simultaneously. Simply give it a try in case, of course, you're using - intend to use - the Xfce Desktop Environment.

Another excellent program is checkgmail.