libnotify ☆

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Description:
Library that sends desktop notifications to a notification daemon

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | @gnome | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: notifications desktop gnome linux library

Install: brew install libnotify

About:
Libnotify is a lightweight library that provides a simple API for sending desktop notifications to a notification daemon like those found in GNOME, KDE, or other Linux desktop environments. It implements the Desktop Notifications Specification, enabling applications to display urgent alerts, status updates, or background task completions. This library is essential for creating responsive, user-friendly GUI applications on Linux systems.

Key Features:

Simple, lightweight C API for easy integration
Compliant with the Desktop Notifications Specification
Supports actions, urgency levels, and expiration times
Language bindings available for multiple programming languages

Use Cases:

Displaying build status or error alerts from CLI tools in a desktop GUI
Sending real-time system monitoring alerts or backup completion notifications
Notifying users of incoming messages or background task completions in applications

Alternatives:

notify-rs – Rust implementation; more modern but language-specific
OS-native APIs (e.g., NSUserNotification) – Platform-specific; requires conditional compilation for cross-platform support

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 14, 2025 8:47pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	28665aec