homebrew update notifier

README.md

launchd

First, open a Mac Terminal window, then cd to this directory:

$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents

When I dug around in the Apple documentation, I found there are three main directories you can use with launchd, and that's how I learned about this directory. Here are your three options:

1. /Library/LaunchDaemons - Put your plist scripts in this folder if your job needs to run even when no users are logged in.
2. /Library/LaunchAgents - Put your plist scripts in this folder if the job is only useful when users are logged in. (Note: I learned that this has the side-effect of your job being run as 'root' after a system reboot.)
3. $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents - Put your plist files in this folder if the job is only useful when users are logged in. (When your plist configuration file is placed here, your job will be run under your username.)

Note that when you use the first two directories shown here, you must use the sudo command to edit your files.

To keep this simple and just see how things work initially, my advice is to use the $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents folder until you see how things work, then use the other two system folders if/when necessary.

brew-update-notifier.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Notify of Homebrew updates via Notification Center on Mac OS X
#
# Author: Chris Streeter http://www.chrisstreeter.com
# Requires: terminal-notifier. Install with:
#   brew install terminal-notifier

TERM_APP='/Applications/Terminal.app'
BREW_EXEC='/opt/homebrew/bin/brew'
TERMINAL_NOTIFIER=`which terminal-notifier`
NOTIF_ARGS="-sender com.apple.Terminal"

$BREW_EXEC update 2>&1 > /dev/null
outdated=`$BREW_EXEC outdated --quiet | sed -e 's/.*\///'`
pinned=`$BREW_EXEC list --pinned`

# Remove pinned formulae from the list of outdated formulae
outdated=`comm -1 -3 <(echo "$pinned") <(echo "$outdated")`

if [ -z "$outdated" ] ; then
    if [ -e $TERMINAL_NOTIFIER ]; then
        # No updates available
        $TERMINAL_NOTIFIER $NOTIF_ARGS \
            -title "No Homebrew Updates Available" \
            -message "No updates available yet for any homebrew packages."
    fi
else
    # We've got an outdated formula or two

    # Nofity via Notification Center
    if [ -e $TERMINAL_NOTIFIER ]; then
        lc=$((`echo "$outdated" | wc -l`))
        outdated=`echo "$outdated" | tail -$lc`
        message=`echo "$outdated" | head -5`
        if [ "$outdated" != "$message" ]; then
            message="Some of the outdated formulae are:
$message"
        else
            message="The following formulae are outdated:
$message"
        fi
        # Send to the Nofication Center
        $TERMINAL_NOTIFIER $NOTIF_ARGS \
            -title "Homebrew Update(s) Available" -message "$message"
    fi
fi

com.reavon.brew-update-notifier.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnableGlobbing</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>homebrew.reavon.update-notifier</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/homebrew-update-notifier</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/homebrew.reavon.update-notifier.err</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/homebrew.reavon.update-notifier.out</string>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>10</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>15</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>