Brew Notifier

A simple Zsh script that automatically checks for outdated Homebrew packages and displays a notification when you open your terminal.

Features

• Automatic Daily Checks: A cron job runs in the background to check for updates.
• Terminal Notification: Displays a clean, formatted list of packages, showing current and available versions.
• Lightweight: Just a simple shell script, no heavy dependencies.

How It Works

The system has two components:

1. The Update Script (scripts/update_brew_notifier.sh): This script is run by cron. It calls brew update and brew outdated, saving the list of outdated packages to a file in your home directory (~/.brew_updates_available).
2. The .zshrc Hook: A small piece of code in your ~/.zshrc file checks if the above file exists and has content. If it does, it prints a formatted notification to your terminal.

Installation

1. Clone or download this repository to a location on your computer, for example ~/.local/share/brew-notifier.

2. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x scripts/update_brew_notifier.sh

3. Add the notification hook to your .zshrc file. Open ~/.zshrc with a text editor and add the following lines at the end:

   # --- Brew Notifier ---
   _BREW_NOTIFIER_FILE="$HOME/.brew_updates_available"
   if [ -s "$_BREW_NOTIFIER_FILE" ]; then
     echo ""
     echo -e "\e[1;33m🍻 Homebrew updates available:\e[0m"
     echo "------------------------------------"
     sed 's/^/  /' "$_BREW_NOTIFIER_FILE"
     echo "------------------------------------"
     echo -e "To upgrade, run: \e[1;32mbrew upgrade\e[0m"
     echo ""
     # Remove the file to not show the notification again
     rm "$_BREW_NOTIFIER_FILE"
   fi
   unset _BREW_NOTIFIER_FILE
   # --- End Brew Notifier ---

4. Set up the cron job to run the script automatically.

   • Open the cron editor:

     crontab -e

   • Add the following line. Remember to replace /path/to/your/brew-notifier with the actual absolute path to where you cloned the repository.

     # Run the brew-notifier script daily at 10 AM.
     0 10 * * * /bin/zsh /path/to/your/brew-notifier/scripts/update_brew_notifier.sh > /tmp/brew_notifier.log 2>&1

That's it! The script will now run daily, and you'll be notified of any updates the next time you open a terminal.