Chimer

A chiming clock for the command line, written in Go.

Installation

You can install chimer either from the latest release archive or be compiled locally.

From Release Archive

1. Download the latest archive, specific to your platform, from https://github.com/codemedic/go-chimer/releases/latest
2. Verify SHA256
3. Extract the archive; e.g. into ~/apps/chimer
4. That's it!

Compile

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/codemedic/go-chimer.git
   

2. Build the binary

   # On Linux, dependencies for oto library need to be installed
   sudo apt install -y libasound2-dev build-essential
   
   cd go-chimer
   CGO_ENABLED=1 go build ./cmd/chimer/ 

3. Copy binary and sounds

   mkdir -p ~/apps/chimer
   cp -r chimer chimes ~/apps/chimer

Usage

The chimer can be used either as a one-shot command run from a cron, every 15 minutes or as a continuously running service, from your service manager of choice. You may also run the binary directly from a terminal window.

Cron Usage

You need to add the below line to your crontab.

*/15 * * * * /home/username/apps/chimer/chimer --sound /home/username/apps/chimer/chimes` --cron

From a Terminal Window

Run the command below from a terminal window; make sure you leave the window open afterwards. You may press Ctrl+C to stop chimer.

~/apps/chimer/chimer --sound ~/apps/chimer/chimes

Alternatively, you may add the below line to your .bashrc or your shell's rc file to simplify the invocation.

export CHIMER_SOUND_DEFAULT="$HOME/apps/chimer/chimes"

Then chimer can be invoked with no commandline option.

~/apps/chimer/chimer

Usage Help

You can see the below usage help by using the command line option --help.

$> ~/apps/chimer/chimer --help
Usage: chimer [options] [arguments]

OPTIONS
--sound/$CHIMER_SOUND_DEFAULT  <string>
Default path for sound(s) if none are not specified.
--sound-hour/$CHIMER_SOUND_HOUR  <string>
Path for sound(s) at zero past an hour.
--sound-quarter-past/$CHIMER_SOUND_QUARTER_PAST  <string>
Path for sound(s) at quarter past an hour.
--sound-half-past/$CHIMER_SOUND_HALF_PAST  <string>
Path for sound(s) at half past an hour.
--sound-quarter-to/$CHIMER_SOUND_QUARTER_TO  <string>
Path for sound(s) at quarter to an hour.
--cache-sounds/$CHIMER_CACHE_SOUNDS  <bool>  (default: true)
Cache sounds in memory
--repeat-hourly-sound/-r/$CHIMER_REPEAT_HOURLY_SOUND  <bool>  (default: false)
Repeat the hourly sound T time at T'O clock.
--minimum-volume-level/-l/$CHIMER_MINIMUM_VOLUME_LEVEL  <int>    (default: 50)
--test-time/$CHIMER_TEST_TIME                           <value>
Specify a time to test chimer in cron-mode. This option is ignored when cron-mode is not enabled.
--cron/-c/$CHIMER_CRON_MODE_ENABLED  <bool>  (default: false)
Enable cron-mode where it acts on the current time to decide whether to chime or not
--help/-h
display this help message
--version/-v
display version information

NOTE: All sound paths can be either a relative or full path to an MP3 file or
a directory containing multiple MP3s. In the latter case, one of the files will
be chosen at random for each chime.

Known Issues

• Chime can go unnoticed when other applications are playing audio.
• If another app is playing audio but the speaker is muted, chime can unmute and play sound at the set volume level.

TODO

• Option to pause media during a chime
• Option to mute other apps during a chime
• Explore desktop notification instead of / along with a chime
• Option to mute chimes between certain hours
• Option to change volume level between certain hours
• Configuration file
• Linux distro / Windows / macOS friendly packages