Put a progress bar on the desktop, and repair the notifications around it
An unattended run takes twenty minutes and said nothing at all while it worked. The notification area now carries a live entry for the duration - which step is running, which package is being unpacked, item count, percentage. It is a job in the sense of org.kde.JobViewServer, the same mechanism Dolphin uses while copying files, rather than a notification, which is what makes it a real bar instead of a line of text. That mechanism needs a process of its own. The desktop ties a job to the D-Bus connection that requested it and withdraws it the moment that connection closes, so gdbus, busctl and dbus-send cannot drive one at all - every invocation is a fresh connection that closes again immediately. A small helper therefore runs inside each graphical session for the length of the update, holding the connection open and taking instructions on stdin. It needs python-gobject; without it there is no bar and nothing else changes. Position within the repository step is read from pacman's own "(120/260) upgrading foo" lines. Its other (n/m) sequences are ignored on purpose: checking keys, package integrity and loading files each count up to the same total, and following them would run the bar to the end three times before the first package was unpacked. The "system updated" notification never arrived, which is what prompted looking at any of this. Tagged notifications were posted with --replace-id naming the start message, and Plasma silently drops a Notify() whose replaces_id points at an expired notification: no bubble, no error, and the id it hands back is the dead one it just ignored. The start bubble times out in seconds and a run lasts minutes, so the result fell into exactly that hole every single time. The previous message is now withdrawn and a fresh one posted. How long a message stays is set per message rather than left to the daemon. Anything reporting that the machine still needs a person - a failed update, a locked package database, packages that had to be held back - waits until it is dismissed. Everything else times out on its own, a successful update included; nothing should have to be clicked away for having gone right. Daemons do keep critical-urgency messages up and the specification asks them to, but that is a should, it says nothing about the normal-urgency messages here that still need somebody to act, and urgency separately governs sound and do-not-disturb. "Restart recommended" is gone, and NotifyReboot with it. The running kernel loses its module tree the moment pacman unpacks the new one, so the notice fired while the run was still building AUR packages and pulling Flatpaks, where it reads as an invitation to restart in the middle of an update. The state is still recorded and cachy-auto-update status still reports it. The option went rather than only its default, because an installed system keeps its own configuration file and would have carried on notifying regardless.
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@@ -100,14 +100,57 @@ inside each user's own account. AppImages are updated through Gear Lever, for
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users with a graphical session, and AppImages whose application is currently
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running are skipped.
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The machine is never restarted automatically. When a kernel update makes a
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restart necessary, a notification says so.
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The machine is never restarted automatically. A kernel update that makes a
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restart necessary is reported by *cachy-auto-update status*, not by a
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notification: the running kernel loses its module tree as soon as pacman
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unpacks the new one, so a bubble would fire while the run is still working
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through AUR packages and Flatpaks, and reads as an invitation to restart in the
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middle of it.
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# PROGRESS
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For as long as a run is working, the notification area carries a live progress
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entry: the step being performed, how many items it has got through, an overall
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percentage, and the package currently being unpacked under "Details". This is a
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job in the sense of *org.kde.JobViewServer*, the same mechanism a file manager
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uses while copying, rather than a notification - which is what makes it a bar
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instead of a line of text.
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The desktop withdraws a job as soon as the D-Bus connection that requested it
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closes, so a helper process runs inside each graphical session for the duration
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of the update and holds that connection open. It requires _python-gobject_.
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Where that is missing, or on a desktop with no job interface, there is no
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progress entry and nothing else is affected.
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The position within the repository step is read from pacman's own
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"(120/260) upgrading foo" output. Its other (n/m) sequences - checking keys,
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package integrity, loading package files - each count up to the same total and
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are deliberately ignored.
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# HOW LONG NOTIFICATIONS STAY
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A message that reports the machine still needing a person - an update that
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failed, a package database left locked, packages that had to be held back -
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stays on screen until it is dismissed. A message like that is only worth
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sending if it is still there when somebody comes back to the machine.
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Everything else times out by itself, an update that simply worked included.
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Nothing should have to be clicked away for having gone right.
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This is set per message rather than left to the notification daemon. Daemons do
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keep critical-urgency messages up, and the specification asks them to, but that
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is a recommendation, it does not cover the normal-urgency messages here that
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still need somebody to act, and urgency separately governs sound and whether
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do-not-disturb is overridden.
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Where nobody is logged in the message is spooled and delivered at the next
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login, with the same distinction preserved.
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# INTERRUPTED UPDATES
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Before a transaction starts, a notification says an update is running and asks
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for the machine to be left on. It is replaced in place by the result once the
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run finishes.
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for the machine to be left on. It is withdrawn again when the result arrives,
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so one bubble is used rather than two.
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While a transaction is running, *cachy-auto-update* holds a
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*systemd-inhibit*(1) lock on _sleep_ and _shutdown_ in blocking mode, so a
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