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Startup Notification

What is it?

The fim-notify command configures FlatImage to display a desktop notification every time the container starts. This provides visual feedback that the application is launching, particularly useful for applications with longer startup times or those running in the background.

Use Cases:

  • Provide user feedback for GUI applications with slow startup
  • Confirm background services have started successfully
  • Show application information at launch (name, version)
  • Brand your application with custom notifications
  • Notify users when multiple instances are started

How to Use

You can use ./app.flatimage fim-help notify to get the following usage details:

fim-notify : Notify with 'notify-send' when the program starts
Usage: fim-notify <on|off>
  <on> : Turns on notify-send to signal the application start
  <off> : Turns off notify-send to signal the application start

Enable Startup Notification

Activate desktop notifications on launch:

./app.flatimage fim-notify on

Now every time you execute the FlatImage, a desktop notification appears confirming the application is starting.

Example: 

# Enable notifications
./app.flatimage fim-notify on

# Run the application
./app.flatimage
# → Desktop notification appears: "Starting MyApp"

Disable Startup Notification

Turn off startup notifications:

./app.flatimage fim-notify off

The FlatImage will launch silently without displaying notifications.

Example: 

# Disable notifications
./app.flatimage fim-notify off

# Run the application
./app.flatimage
# → No notification displayed

How it Works

Startup notifications use the notify-send command-line tool, which is part of the libnotify library and supported by most modern Linux desktop environments.

Configuration Storage:

The notification setting is stored in the FlatImage binary as a boolean flag. This configuration persists across executions and layer commits.