How to make a sound once a process is complete?

Question

I have started a long process through a terminal. Is it possible to make the Ubuntu terminal make a sound once the process is complete? This way, I don’t need to keep checking, but will instead be notified through a sound.

score 160 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 19 '15 at 23:58

160

I use

make; spd-say done

Replace "make" with whatever long-running command you use.

answered Feb 19 '15 at 23:58

Memetic

1,701

Takkat · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-17T19:18:22.983

There are at least three command line ways to accomplish this by putting the suiting command at the end of your script you may invoke for your lengthy process:

The "classical" way to play a sound is to use beep.

Beep will make a tone through the PC speaker. However this will not work in all cases (e.g. in my system PC speakers are completely disabled) You may have to remove pcspkr from /etc/modprobe/blacklist.conf and load the pcspkr kernel module:
```
sudo sed -i 's/blacklist pcspkr/#blacklist pcspkr/g' /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
sudo modprobe pcspkr
beep [optional parameters]
```
We can also play any sound file in wav format using aplay (installed by default):
```
 aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Side_Right.wav
```
Another way is to use the pulseaudio command line interface to enable playback of any sound files your system (in libsndfile) recognizes on the default audio output:
```
  paplay /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/complete.oga
```

We can use default sound files from /usr/share/sounds/, or any other sound file we may have in a different location.

Just to have mentioned it, there is another nice way to achieve this by misusing espeak, which is installed by default in Ubuntu <= 12.04. See, or rather hear the following example:

#! /bin/bash
c=10; while [ $c -ge 0 ]; do espeak $c; let c--; done; sleep 1 ## here lengthy code
espeak "We are done with counting"

In Ubuntu >= 12.10 Orca uses speak-dispatcher. We can then install espeak, or alternatively use spd-say "Text".

score 41 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '15 at 19:39

According to this the \a character escapes ASCII code 7, which is the computer's beep.

So echo $'\a' works to make a beep sound on my local machine, even when it's executed on a bash shell running on a computer I'm connected to via a terminal interface like PuTTY.

rsp · Answer 4 · 2017-01-18T21:38:24.503

TL;DR

To play a sound after command finishes:

long-running-command; sn3

(where sn3 is sound number 3) put this in .bashrc:

sound() {
  # plays sounds in sequence and waits for them to finish
  for s in $@; do
    paplay $s
  done
}
sn1() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/dialog-information.ogg
}
sn2() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/complete.oga
}
sn3() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/suspend-error.oga
}

Or read below for more options:

Different sound on error and success

Here is what I use for exactly what you ask for - with one difference: it not only plays a sound when the command finishes but it plays a different sound on success and on error. (But you can change it if you don't like it.)

I have a Bash function called oks that I use at the end of long running commands:

make && make test && make install; oks

It plays a sound and displays OK or ERROR (with error code) when the previous command finishes.

Source code

Here is that function with two helpers:

sound() {
  # plays sounds in sequence and waits for them to finish
  for s in $@; do
    paplay $s
  done
}
soundbg() {
  # plays all sounds at the same time in the background
  for s in $@; do
    # you may need to change 0 to 1 or something else:
    pacmd play-file $s 0 >/dev/null
  done
}
oks() {
  # like ok but with sounds
  s=$?
  sound_ok=/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/dialog-information.ogg
  sound_error=/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/dialog-warning.ogg
  if [[ $s = 0 ]]; then
    echo OK
    soundbg $sound_ok
  else
    echo ERROR: $s
    soundbg $sound_error
  fi
}

Installation

You can put it in your ~/.bashrc directly or put it in some other file and then put this line in your ~/.bashrc:

. ~/path/to/file/with/function

Configuration

Change sound_ok and sound_error to some other sounds.

You can experiment with sound vs. soundbg and change sound_ok and sound_error to use sequences of many sounds that you like to get the result that you want.

Good sounds

To find some good sounds on your system you can try:

for i in /usr/share/sounds/*/stereo/*; do echo $i; paplay $i; sleep 1; done

Here are some sounds that I often use that are available on Ubuntu by default that are good for notifications - sn1 is loud and nice, sn2 is very loud and still pretty nice, sn3 is extremely loud and not so nice:

sn1() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/dialog-information.ogg
}
sn2() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/complete.oga
}
sn3() {
  sound /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/suspend-error.oga
}

Again, you can change sound to soundbg if you want to play it in the background without waiting for the sound to finish (e.g. to not slow down your scripts when you play a lot of sounds).

Silent version

And just in case - here is the same function as oks but without sounds:

ok() {
  # prints OK or ERROR and exit status of previous command
  s=$?
  if [[ $s = 0 ]]; then
    echo OK
  else
    echo ERROR: $s
  fi
}

Usage

Here is how you use it:

Example with success:

ls / && ls /bin && ls /usr; oks

example with error:

ls / && ls /bim && ls /usr; oks

Of course in practice the commands are more like:

make && make test && make install; oks

but I used ls so you could quickly see how it works.

You can use ok instead of oks for a silent version.

Or you can use e.g.:

ls / && ls /bim && ls /usr; ok; sn1

to print OK/ERROR but always play the same sound, etc.

Update

I put those functions on GitHub, see:

https://github.com/rsp/scripts/blob/master/ok-functions.md

The source can be downloaded from:

https://rawgit.com/rsp/scripts/master/ok-functions

Update 2

I added a soundloop function to the above repo. It plays a sound and can be interrupted by Ctrl+C (unlike a simple while true; do paplay file.ogg; done that one would expect to work but it doesn't) as asked by shadi in the comments. It is implemented as:

soundloop() {
  set +m
  a=`date +%s`
  { paplay $1 & } 2>/dev/null
  wait
  b=`date +%s`
  d=$(($b-$a))
  [ $d -eq 0 ] && d=1
  while :; do
    pacmd play-file $1 0 >/dev/null
    sleep $d
  done
}

If you think it is complicated, please direct your complains to PulseAudio developers.

kos · Answer 5 · 2016-03-06T20:30:48.640

Expanding on Michael Curries's answer, you could make Bash print a BEL (\a) character through PROMPT_COMMAND:

PROMPT_COMMAND='printf \\a'

Setting PROMPT_COMMAND that way will make Bash execute printf \\a at the end of each command, which will make the terminal play a sound (though as muru points out, simply triggering the redrawal of the prompt will make the terminal play the sound, i.e. the sound will be played each time a new prompt is drawn, for example even when just hitting ENTER).

This is a terminal feature, so it might not work across all terminals; for example it doesn't work in the console (but I'm sure it works in gnome-terminaland xterm).

xerostomus · Answer 6 · 2020-06-13T20:45:12.717

The command

 speaker-test

makes a noise sound. Simplest but annoying solution. :-)

Look at the manual of speaker-test(1) for options to configure the noise signal.

Update

If you do not mind installing sox, you can play Silicon Heaven Hymn:

sudo apt install sox
while true; do play -q -v 100 -n synth  .$(( $RANDOM % 51 ))1  sine $((200 + $RANDOM % 4000 )) &> /dev/null; done

If you do not mind to install espeak:

sudo apt install espeak
espeak 'Johnny is marching home! Hurray!'
espeak -v german  'Doch! Ich bin vertig!'
espeak -x  -v czech  'Běžela Magda kaňonem, srážela banány ramenem.'

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 30 '18 at 14:07

7

This is not what you asked but you could use notification for that.

Replace the command given in the other answers with

notify-send "Process terminated" "Come back to the terminal, the task is over"

answered Mar 30 '18 at 14:07

solsTiCe

9,515

Gabriel Staples · Answer 8 · 2024-04-02T16:46:13.623

Super simple answer

Play the ASCII Bell Character sound:

echo -e "\a"

Do it after a long command, emulated by sleep 2 here:

sleep 2; echo -e "\a"

DONE!

More details

To make this easy to use, add this to the bottom of your ~/.bashrc file (create this file if it doesn't exist). Or, if using Ubuntu, add it to your ~/.bash_aliases file instead (which file is imported by Ubuntu's default ~/.bashrc file) like I do in my ~/.bash_aliases file here:

# Play sound; very useful to add to the end of a long cmd you want to be notified of when it completes!
# Ex: `long_cmd; gs_sound_bell` will play a bell sound when `long_cmd` completes!
alias gs_sound_bell="echo -e \"\a\""
Even better, have a pop-up notification too!
Ex: long_cmd; gs_alert will play the sound above and pop up a notification when complete!
See more details & a screenshot of the popup on my answer here:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/277215/how-to-make-a-sound-once-a-process-is-complete/1213564#1213564
For other popup window options, see my other answer here:
https://superuser.com/questions/31917/is-there-a-way-to-show-notification-from-bash-script-in-ubuntu/1310142#1310142
alias gs_alert="gs_sound_bell; alert &quot;task complete&quot;"

Notice that my gs_alert alias calls alert, so you need that alias defined too. This alias is defined by default in Ubuntu. But, if your ~/.bashrc file doesn't already have this near the top of it, then add it just above the code above. Again, these lines come default in your ~/.bashrc file in Ubuntu 18 or 20, for instance:

# Add an "alert" alias for long running commands.  Use like so:
#   sleep 10; alert
alias alert='notify-send --urgency=low -i "$([ $? = 0 ] && echo terminal || echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/[;&|]\s*alert$//'\'')"'

Test it

Close and re-open your terminal, or call . ~/.bashrc to re-"source" the file, then test it like this:

sleep 2; gs_alert

After 2 seconds you'll hear the bell sound and see this pop up at the top of your screen:

If you ever forget what your alias contains, you can see what's in each one by running this:

# See the definitions for ALL aliases you have defined!
alias
See just the definitions for specific aliases. Ex:
alias gs_sound_bell
alias gs_alert 
alias alert

Use it

# get alerted when `my_long_cmd` finishes! Ex: building software. 
my_long_cmd; gs_alert

Notes

The gs_ part at the beginning of each alias is my initials. I prepend my custom commands and aliases with this to make them easy to find: I can now just type gs_ at the terminal then press Tab Tab (Tab twice) to see all my custom commands print out.

Going Further

If you find this useful, you'll find a lot more of my Linux settings, including everything above, here: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles.
1. Check out my home directory.
For other window popup options, see my other answer here: SuperUser.com: Is there a way to show notification from bash script in Ubuntu?

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 22 '19 at 14:11

ffmpeg sine wave

For the minimalists out there, you can play a 1000 Hz sine for 5 seconds:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
ffplay -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=1000:duration=5" -autoexit -nodisp

or forever until you do Ctrl-C:

ffplay -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=1000" -nodisp

More information at: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5109038/linux-sine-wave-audio-generator/57610684#57610684

Tested in Ubuntu 18.04, ffmpeg 3.4.6.

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 17 '20 at 16:23

3

You can press Ctrl + g on your keyboard while on the terminal window that is running the command and when the command finishes it'll beep. If you press it multiple times it will beep many times as well.

answered Dec 17 '20 at 16:23

Juan Hernandez

131

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited May 01 '20 at 00:25

I created a simple and almost-native script that plays Sound and displays a Notification with a Given Message and Time for Ubuntu (Gist):


#!/bin/sh

# https://gist.github.com/John-Almardeny/04fb95eeb969aa46f031457c7815b07d
# Create a Notification With Sound with a Given Message and Time
# The Downloaded Sound is from Notification Sounds https://notificationsounds.com/

MSSG="$1"
TIME="$2"

# install wget if not found
if ! [ -x "$(command -v wget)" ]; then 
    echo -e "INSTALLING WGET...\n\n"
    sudo apt-get install wget
    echo -e "\n\n"
fi

# install at package if not found
if ! [ -x "$(command -v at)" ]; then
    echo -e "INSTALLING AT...\n\n"
    sudo apt-get install at
    echo -e "\n\n"
fi

# install sox if not found
if ! [ -x "$(command -v sox)" ]; then
    echo -e "INSTALLING SOX...\n\n"
    sudo apt-get install sox
    sudo apt-get install sox libsox-fmt-all
    echo -e "\n\n"
fi

# download the noti sound if this is first time
# add alias to the bashrc file
if ! [ -f ~/noti/sound.mp3 ]; then
    echo -e "DOWNLOADING SOUND...\n\n"
    touch ~/noti/sound.mp3 | wget -O ~/noti/sound.mp3 "https://notificationsounds.com/wake-up-tones/rise-and-shine-342/download/mp3"
    sudo echo "alias noti=\"sh ~/noti/noti.sh\"" >> ~/.bashrc
    source ~/.bashrc        
    echo -e "\n\n"
fi

# notify with the sound playing and particular given message and time
echo "notify-send \""$MSSG\"" && play ~/noti/sound.mp3" | at $TIME

How To Use?

First Run - Setting Up:

Create a new Directory at your home and call it noti
```
mkdir ~/noti
```
Download noti.sh and extract it to the above noti dir.
Open Terminal and Change Directory to noti
```
cd ~/noti
```
Make noti.sh executable by issuing:
```
sudo chmod +x noti.sh
```
Run a Test like this:
```
sh ~/noti/noti.sh "Test" "now"
```

Examples

noti "Hello From Noti" "now +1 minute"
noti "Hello From Noti" "now +5 minutes"
noti "Hello From Noti" "now + 1 hour"
noti "Hello From Noti" "now + 2 days"
noti "Hello From Noti" "4 PM + 2 days"
noti "Hello From Noti" "now + 3 weeks"
noti "Hello From Noti" "now + 4 months"
noti "Hello From Noti" "4:00 PM"
noti "Hello From Noti" "2:30 AM tomorrow"
noti "Hello From Noti" "2:30 PM Fri"
noti "Hello From Noti" "2:30 PM 25.07.18"

For Notifying The Finish of Process (example)

sudo apt-get update; noti "Done" "now"

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 17 '20 at 20:54

Just adding an interesting idea i've seen implemented in some scripts, using the system bell:

tput bel

it will ring the system bell, which (at least in konsole) shows a notification if you're not watching the terminal and does nothing if you are watching it (in old termnals it might ring an actual bell). according to this quesiton it is very portable, it even works in macOS and doesn't need anything to be installed.

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited May 23 '16 at 11:33

1

command && (say done ; echo done) || (echo error ; say error)

Example 1: echo alik && (say done ; echo done) || (echo error ; say error) will result in a done word.

Example 2: non_existing_command_error && (say done ; echo done) || (echo error ; say error) will result in an error word.

* Needs gnustep-gui-runtime -

sudo apt-get install gnustep-gui-runtime

Cheers.

edited May 23 '16 at 11:33

muru

207,228

answered May 23 '16 at 11:23

AlikElzin-kilaka

5,247

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 26 '23 at 08:57

either aplay or spd-say is enough if you want to play a sound. but if you want some nice bell ding as default then ding can be a suitable choice, just

ding npm install

or

docker build && docker tag && docker push && ding

to set a reminder when the command is done

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered May 24 '23 at 18:49

0

aplay /usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav

and for ease of remembering make it an alias in .bashrc

alias beep="aplay /usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav 2>/dev/null"

you can then type beep and it will beep (oh my)

answered May 24 '23 at 18:49

douwe

51

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Apr 27 '24 at 19:01

I was just looking for a solution and here it is:

gst-play-1.0 /usr/share/sounds/Yaru/stereo/system-ready.oga

And here is why I prefer it over the other answers:

Gstreamer is pretty much the pre-installed default these days, and it plays the audio files which ship with Ubuntu.
spd-say done is quite good in the way that you can make it say almost anything. I have used this quite dated sounding text to speech engine for some time, but other users may not expect a robotic voice at arbitrary volume and arbitrary time. It can sound a bit scary.
paplay is not preinstalled anymore.
echo $'\a' was my first thought, but I may be busy on another terminal which produces the same sounds and I may not notice it.
speaker-test loud white noise. Scary.
ffplay FFmpeg is not pre-installed. (My use case was Ubuntu Live Media Desktop)

How to make a sound once a process is complete?

16 Answers16

TL;DR

Different sound on error and success

Source code

Installation

Configuration

Good sounds

Silent version

Usage

Update

Update 2

Super simple answer

More details

Even better, have a pop-up notification too!

Ex: `long_cmd; gs_alert` will play the sound above and pop up a notification when complete!

See more details & a screenshot of the popup on my answer here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/277215/how-to-make-a-sound-once-a-process-is-complete/1213564#1213564

For other popup window options, see my other answer here:

https://superuser.com/questions/31917/is-there-a-way-to-show-notification-from-bash-script-in-ubuntu/1310142#1310142

Test it

See just the definitions for specific aliases. Ex: