systemd-alarm

A systemd unit that turns your computer into a overly energy-intensive alarm-clock.

Installation & configuration

As a regular user, put the content of this repository in ~/.config/systemd/user and make the following ajustments to each of them.

alarmclock.timer

• Make sure the OnCalendar option matches the time and schedule at which you want your computer to wake up.

start-alarmclock

• Run $ pactl list short sinks and copy the name of the audio sink you want to handle your alarm sound (ideally not headphones). Replace the value of sinkName by that name.
• Set the value of soundClipPath by the absolute path of sound clip you want to use as an alarm.
• Set initialVolume to the volume your alarm should start playing at in percents (e.g : "25%").
• If you want your alarm's volume to gradually increase, set volumeSteps, volumeStepIncrease and volumeStepDuration to match how many times, by how much (e.g : "+5%") and and the interval between each bump (e.g : "10s"), respectively.
• If you don't want your alarm's volume to increase at all, you can also comment the aforementionned variables.
• If you want your alarm to stop running if it's not stopped manually, just set alarmTimeout to the maximum duration in seconds. Alternatively, you can use the 'm', 'h' and 'd' suffix to specify that duration minutes, hours or days instead (e.g : "1h").
• You can also comment alarmTimeout if you want your alarm to keep playing indefinitely until stopped manually.
• Try running the script manually once you're done, to make sure it works properly.

Usage

• To enable the alarm, simply type (as a regular user) systemctl --user enable --now alarmclock.timer.
• You can then verify that the timer has been set properly by ensuring it's listed in the output of systemctl --user list-timers.
• Once the alarm starts, it can be stopped with a systemctl --user stop alarmclock. Feel free to create an alias for that command.
• Don't forget to run $systemctl --user daemon-reload after any changes to alarmclock.timer and alarmclock.service to make sure they've been registered properly.

Notes

• This whole setup is loosely based on Joey Hess' guide on the matter. Many thanks to him for putting that guide together.
• This repository mostly consists of a bash script and two systemd unit files. Naturally, it will not work without systemd. The script also uses pulseaudio (and pactl) for sound control and ffplay for audio decoding.