I spend a lot of my day waiting for my computer to finish doing what it's doing. For example, I might be waiting for a backup, a file copy, or a build to finish.

In the mean time, I usually read my email, do some other work, or browse the web, but I want to come back to that job as soon as the computer's ready.

Now I can, and so can you if you run Linux.

First, check out, compile, and install the latest version of VTE.

Next, check out the source code for GNOME Terminal 2.24, apply the latest patch from GNOME Bug 557593, run autogen.sh, make, make install, and you should be done.

Finally, make your shell output a bell character (Ctrl+G) when it prints the prompt. For example, in bash you can put PS1="\\007$PS1" at the bottom of your ~/.bashrc.

When you're done, you should be able to do this...









Technically, it works by setting the X urgency hint on the terminal window. Your window list or task bar will know to flash the window's icon when this happens.

The patch also makes the tab's title bold so you can tell which tab or tabs are finished.

For Windows users, there's a similar feature in PuTTY. Of course, it doesn't support tabs, but it should still be pretty useful.

Go to the Bell section in your preferences and set the Taskbar/caption indication on bell option to Flashing.



You'll still need to add the bell to your shell prompt as above.

Terminals

Eterm	Yes
GNOME Terminal	Patch
KDE Konsole	No?
PuTTY	Since beta 0.52
rxvt-unicode	Since 8.3
XFCE Terminal	Patch

Window Managers

dwm	Yes
Enlightenment	Since 0.16.8
Fluxbox	Since 1.0rc
GNOME Window List	Since 2.12
ion3	Yes?
KDE Kicker	Since 3.2.0?
Openbox	No?
Windows Explorer	Yes
Xmonad	Yes

UPDATE: 2 June 2009

Konsole in KDE 3 has the feature too, but it's broken in KDE 4 KDE Bug 165193.