ntfy/README.md

# ntfy

**ntfy** (pronounce: *notify*) is a simple HTTP-based [pub-sub]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publish%E2%80%93subscribe_pattern) notification service.
It allows you to send notifications to your phone or desktop via scripts from any computer, entirely without signup or cost.
It's also open source (as you can plainly see) if you want to run your own.

I run a free version of it at **[ntfy.sh](https://ntfy.sh)**, and there's an [Android app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.heckel.ntfy)
too.

## Usage

### Publishing messages

Publishing messages can be done via PUT or POST using. Topics are created on the fly by subscribing or publishing to them.
Because there is no sign-up, **the topic is essentially a password**, so pick something that's not easily guessable.

Here's an example showing how to publish a message using `curl`:

```
curl -d "long process is done" ntfy.sh/mytopic
```

Here's an example in JS with `fetch()` (see [full example](examples)):

```
fetch('https://ntfy.sh/mytopic', {
  method: 'POST', // PUT works too
  body: 'Hello from the other side.'
})
```

### Subscribe to a topic
You can create and subscribe to a topic either in this web UI, or in your own app by subscribing to an
[EventSource](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/EventSource), a JSON feed, or raw feed.

#### Subscribe via web
If you subscribe to a topic via this web UI in the field below, messages published to any subscribed topic
will show up as **desktop notification**.

You can try this easily on **[ntfy.sh](https://ntfy.sh)**.

#### Subscribe via phone
You can use the [Ntfy Android App](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.heckel.ntfy) to receive 
notifications directly on your phone. Just like the server, this app is also [open source](https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy-android).

#### Subscribe via your app, or via the CLI
Using [EventSource](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/EventSource) in JS, you can consume
notifications like this (see [full example](examples)):

```javascript
const eventSource = new EventSource('https://ntfy.sh/mytopic/sse');<br/>
eventSource.onmessage = (e) => {<br/>
  // Do something with e.data<br/>
};
```

You can also use the same `/sse` endpoint via `curl` or any other HTTP library:

```
$ curl -s ntfy.sh/mytopic/sse
event: open
data: {"id":"weSj9RtNkj","time":1635528898,"event":"open","topic":"mytopic"}

data: {"id":"p0M5y6gcCY","time":1635528909,"event":"message","topic":"mytopic","message":"Hi!"}

event: keepalive
data: {"id":"VNxNIg5fpt","time":1635528928,"event":"keepalive","topic":"test"}
```

To consume JSON instead, use the `/json` endpoint, which prints one message per line:

```
$ curl -s ntfy.sh/mytopic/json
{"id":"SLiKI64DOt","time":1635528757,"event":"open","topic":"mytopic"}
{"id":"hwQ2YpKdmg","time":1635528741,"event":"message","topic":"mytopic","message":"Hi!"}
{"id":"DGUDShMCsc","time":1635528787,"event":"keepalive","topic":"mytopic"}
```

Or use the `/raw` endpoint if you need something super simple (empty lines are keepalive messages):

```
$ curl -s ntfy.sh/mytopic/raw

This is a notification
```

#### Message buffering and polling
Messages are buffered in memory for a few hours to account for network interruptions of subscribers.
You can read back what you missed by using the `since=...` query parameter. It takes either a
duration (e.g. `10m` or `30s`) or a Unix timestamp (e.g. `1635528757`):

```
$ curl -s "ntfy.sh/mytopic/json?since=10m"
# Same output as above, but includes messages from up to 10 minutes ago
```

You can also just poll for messages if you don't like the long-standing connection using the `poll=1`
query parameter. The connection will end after all available messages have been read. This parameter has to be
combined with `since=`.

```
$ curl -s "ntfy.sh/mytopic/json?poll=1&since=10m"
# Returns messages from up to 10 minutes ago and ends the connection
```

## Examples
There are a few usage examples in the [examples](examples) directory. I'm sure there are tons of other ways to use it.

## Installation
Please check out the [releases page](https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/releases) for binaries and
deb/rpm packages.

1. Install ntfy using one of the methods described below
2. Then (optionally) edit `/etc/ntfy/config.yml`
3. Then just run it with `ntfy` (or `systemctl start ntfy` when using the deb/rpm).

### Binaries and packages
**Debian/Ubuntu** (*from a repository*)**:**
```bash
curl -sSL https://archive.heckel.io/apt/pubkey.txt | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb [arch=amd64] https://archive.heckel.io/apt debian main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/archive.heckel.io.list"  
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ntfy
```

**Debian/Ubuntu** (*manual install*)**:**
```bash
sudo apt install tmux
wget https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/releases/download/v1.2.0/ntfy_1.2.0_amd64.deb
dpkg -i ntfy_1.2.0_amd64.deb
```

**Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:**
```bash
rpm -ivh https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/releases/download/v1.2.0/ntfy_1.2.0_amd64.rpm
```

**Docker:**
```bash
docker run --rm -it binwiederhier/ntfy
```

**Go:**
```bash
go get -u heckel.io/ntfy
```

**Manual install** (*any x86_64-based Linux*)**:**
```bash
wget https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/releases/download/v1.2.0/ntfy_1.2.0_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/bin -zxf ntfy_1.2.0_linux_x86_64.tar.gz ntfy
./ntfy
```

## Building
Building ntfy is simple. Here's how you do it:

```
make build-simple
# Builds to dist/ntfy_linux_amd64/ntfy
``` 

To build releases, I use [GoReleaser](https://goreleaser.com/). If you have that installed, you can run `make build` or
`make build-snapshot`.

## TODO
- add HTTPS
- make limits configurable

## Contributing
I welcome any and all contributions. Just create a PR or an issue.

## License
Made with ❤️ by [Philipp C. Heckel](https://heckel.io), distributed under the [Apache License 2.0](LICENSE).

Third party libraries and resources:
* [github.com/urfave/cli/v2](https://github.com/urfave/cli/v2) (MIT) is used to drive the CLI
* [Mixkit sound](https://mixkit.co/free-sound-effects/notification/) (Mixkit Free License) used as notification sound
* [Lato Font](https://www.latofonts.com/) (OFL) is used as a font in the Web UI
* [GoReleaser](https://goreleaser.com/) (MIT) is used to create releases
* [github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3](https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3) (MIT) is used to provide the persistent message cache
* [Firebase Admin SDK](https://github.com/firebase/firebase-admin-go) (Apache 2.0) is used to send FCM messages