+++
title = "Tea Timer in Bash"
date = 2025-10-29

[taxonomies]
categories = ["Linux"]

[extra]
author = "Emil Miler"
+++

I grew tired of unlocking my phone, opening and starting a timer when brewing tea, whereas running a simple shell script is much more convenient, at least for me. Writing this script also helped me to refresh my dulled shell scripting skills.

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Here is the full script which I named `tea` in my file system:

```sh
#!/bin/bash

NOTIFICATION_SOUND=~/.scripts/notification.mp3
DELAY="${1:-180}"
DELAY_REMAINING=$DELAY

echo "Timer set to $DELAY seconds"
echo "Remaining: $DELAY_REMAINING"

while [ "$DELAY_REMAINING" -ne 0 ]; do
	sleep 1
	((DELAY_REMAINING--))
	echo -e "\e[1A\e[KRemaining: $DELAY_REMAINING"
done

notify-send 'Tea is Ready' "Timer was set to $DELAY seconds"
pw-play "$NOTIFICATION_SOUND" &
```

So how does it work? First, we set some variables:

```sh
NOTIFICATION_SOUND=~/.scripts/notification.mp3
DELAY="${1:-180}"
```

`NOTIFICATION_SOUND` contains the path for a sound which gets played after the timer runs out. `DELAY` sets the delay to `$1`, or to default of 180 seconds if the `$1` parameter is missing.

Next interesting part is the timing itself. It runs in a loop until `DELAY_REMAINING` reaches zero. The loop also contains a peculiar `echo`:

```sh
echo -e "\e[1A\e[KRemaining: $DELAY_REMAINING"
```

This basically replaces the last line in _stdout_, where `\e[1A` moves the cursor to the previous line and `\e[K` erases the line, therefore letting us overwrite the line with new content.

When the timer runs out, system notification is sent with `notify-send` and the predefined sound is played trough _pipewire_ using `pw-play`:

```sh
notify-send 'Tea is Ready' "Timer was set to $DELAY seconds"
pw-play "$NOTIFICATION_SOUND" &
```

The usage is simple: running `tea` with an optional parameter, such as `tea 120`.