remind: Sophisticated calendar and reminder program

Remind: Master Your Schedule with an Advanced Calendar and Reminder Program for Linux

For many Linux users, managing time and tasks efficiently is crucial, especially if you prefer working within the terminal. While graphical calendar applications offer great visuals, they often lack the depth or flexibility serious power users crave. Enter remind, a sophisticated reminder service that combines the simplicity of a calendar with powerful scripting capabilities. In this blog, we'll explore what makes remind a unique tool, and provide you with step-by-step installation instructions for different Linux distributions.

What is remind?

remind is a command-line calendar and reminder application for Unix-like systems, including Linux. It allows users to define complex, personalized alarms and recurring reminders efficiently. This program is especially powerful for its ability to handle a range of date and time specifications, offering a flexibility that goes well beyond traditional GUI-based calendar applications.

Key features of remind include:

• Advanced scripting capabilities: Use a scripting language to specify reminders which makes it flexible and powerful.

• Plain text files as input: Easily maintain and version-control your reminders.

• Highly configurable reminders: Set single, multiple, or periodic reminders based on various time and date criteria.

• Output customization: Format the output of reminders in almost any way you can imagine, thanks to its powerful scripting environment.

How to Install remind on Your Linux Distribution

remind is available in the repositories of most major Linux distributions, and installing it is usually just a command away. Below, we provide installation instructions for Debian/Ubuntu (using apt), Fedora/RHEL (using dnf), and openSUSE (using zypper).

Installing remind on Debian/Ubuntu

For Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu, you can install remind using the apt package manager. First, update your package list to make sure you have the latest sources:

sudo apt update

Then, install remind by running the following command:

sudo apt install remind

Installing remind on Fedora/RHEL

If you're using Fedora or another distribution that uses dnf as its package manager, you can install remind directly from the default repositories as well:

sudo dnf install remind

This will download and install the latest version of remind available in the Fedora repos.

Installing remind on openSUSE

For those who are using openSUSE, remind can be installed using the zypper package management tool. Like with the other package managers, first ensure your package list is up-to-date:

sudo zypper refresh

Then, install remind:

sudo zypper install remind

Getting Started with remind

Now that you've installed remind, here's a quick example to show you how to set up a simple reminder. Open your terminal and type:

remind -z -k'echo %s' 5 '2023-09-15 REM Hello, world!'

This command sets up a reminder that will notify you with the message "Hello, world!" on September 15, 2023, 5 minutes before midnight (-z sets the time zone to local).

Conclusion

remind brings a powerful, scriptable reminder system right to your command line, allowing full control and customization of how you manage your time-oriented tasks. Whether you're scheduling simple daily tasks or need complex annual reminders with specific conditions, remind can handle it all efficiently.

Embrace the power of the Linux command line and enhance your productivity with remind, a tool that proves that sometimes, older utilities can be the most powerful in the hands of an expert.