batnotifsd 1.0.4

Description:

batnotifsd 1.0.4

batnotifsd — Battery notifications daemon

What
This is a Python script that sends notifications about the battery's status
(charger plugged in/unplugged, low/critical battery levels).
It's useful for window managers where you don't get this functionality out of
the box like in a desktop environment.


Why
I wrote this because I simply could not find anything else that did the job 100%
right. The internet is full of shell scripts that just tap into
/sys/class/power_supply and take info from that in a while true loop with a
sleep, most don't even autodetect the laptop's battery and they make you set a
variable for the right battery for you, or, even worse, manually edit the shell
script to put it in.


How
This Python script uses the pydbus library to
get information directly from UPower through
DBus, and then send it back through DBus using
the org.freedesktop.Notifications bus, all in a
GLib loop.
Also, it automatically detects the first battery that
classifies as a laptop battery[^1].


Usage



To start the daemon, simply use:
$ batnotifsd

You probably want to add it to the autostart of your window manager, check with
your WM's documentation for that.


Packages

NixOS
A derivation for this package is available inside
my Nix package collection.
Just follow
my-nixpkgs/Usage
to add the flake to your config and to add the program to your
environment.systemPackages.
Right now I'm the only person actually using this program, so it's only
available in the repo with my personal Nix derivations. If there's going to be
any interest in it, I'll upstream a derivation into Nixpkgs.
Feel free to just take out the derivation from the
pkgs/ folder and
stick it in your configuration, if you know what you're doing.


PyPi
This script is available in PyPi here.
To install it using pip, run:
$ pip install batnotifsd




About the flake
The Nix flake present in this repo is just the development shell I use to test
this script.


More info

pydbus documentation
pydbus tutorial
(teaches how to actually take values out of DBus)
pydbus notification example
(teaches how to send notifications using DBus)
org.freedesktop.UPower.device
specification in the UPower Manual (teaches what UPower properties are there and
what they mean)



[^1]: If the value is set to "Battery", you will need to verify that the
property power-supply has the value "true" before considering it as a laptop
battery. Otherwise it will likely be the battery for a device of an unknown
type. —
org.freedesktop.UPower.device
specification in the UPower Manual