Sometimes when running long running tasks (like a copy, move, or even a benchmark on a system) I want to know when the task is complete, so I can kick off the next task or see the results. Turns out there’s two simple commands (well, one command and one special char to be exact) to notify the user using the system bell:
tput bel
or
echo -e "\a"
So you could have a long running script (put this in a something.sh bash script and execute), like:
tar -czvf mybigtarfile bigdirectory tput bel
Or you can do it right on the command line with the “;” to separate the tasks, such as:
$ mv bigfile /storage; tput bel
On a mac the terminal icon will do the bounce up and down dance to get your attention.
In Windows if you’re using something like Putty, you need to set the default behavior to have the task bar flash. You then have to save this to the “Default Session” in the Saved Sessions Window.
