Selamta

A delightful macOS utility that displays random Amharic proverbs from a collection of 1,440+ traditional Ethiopian sayings. Perfect for staying connected to Ethiopian culture while you work.

✨ Features

🖥️ Terminal Display - Beautiful colored proverb output
🔔 macOS Notifications - Pop-up notifications with Ethiopian proverbs
🔒 Lock Screen Messages - See wisdom when you lock your Mac
⏰ Automatic Updates - New proverb every 15 minutes (customizable)
🎯 1,440+ Proverbs - Rich collection of traditional Ethiopian sayings
⚙️ Highly Configurable - Sound, frequency, and display options

🎬 Quick Demo

# Display a random proverb
$ selamta
የሚያልፈው ጊዜ አይመለስም።

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
• Admin/sudo access

Install Steps

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/HenokB/selamta.git
cd selamta

2. Run the installer

sudo ./install.sh

3. Done! The proverb daemon is now running. 🎉

What Gets Installed

• /usr/local/bin/selamta - Main script
• /usr/local/share/selamta/amharic_cleaned.csv - Proverb database
• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist - Auto-run configuration

🚀 Usage

Basic Commands

# Display a random proverb
selamta

# Show help and all options
selamta --help

# Terminal-only mode (no notifications)
selamta -t

# Enable sound notification
selamta -s

# Disable lock screen message
selamta --no-lock

Notification Setup

To receive notification pop-ups:

1. Run the script once to trigger macOS permission prompt:

   selamta

2. Allow notifications when prompted

3. Or manually enable in System Settings:

   • Open System Settings (or System Preferences)
   • Go to Notifications
   • Find "Terminal" or "Script Editor" in the list
   • Enable "Allow Notifications"

On Linux, the script falls back to notify-send. Make sure libnotify is installed and desktop notifications are enabled for your session.

Lock Screen Setup

To display proverbs on your lock screen:

1. Grant Full Disk Access (macOS Catalina+):

   • Open System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy
   • Select Full Disk Access from the sidebar
   • Click the 🔒 lock and authenticate
   • Click + and add /usr/local/bin/selamta

2. Test it: Lock your screen (⌘ + ^ + Q)

3. See the proverb displayed above the login field! ✨

⚙️ Configuration

Change Update Frequency

Edit the daemon configuration:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist

Change the interval (in seconds):

<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>900</integer>  <!-- 900 = 15 minutes -->

Reload the daemon:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist

Enable/Disable Features

Edit environment variables in the plist file:

<key>ENABLE_NOTIFICATION</key>
<string>1</string>  <!-- 1 = on, 0 = off -->

<key>ENABLE_LOCK_SCREEN</key>
<string>1</string>  <!-- 1 = on, 0 = off -->

<key>ENABLE_SOUND</key>
<string>0</string>  <!-- 1 = on, 0 = off -->

📊 Monitoring

View Logs

# See proverb output (daemon logs)
tail -f /var/log/selamta_output.log

# See any errors (daemon logs)
tail -f /var/log/selamta_error.log

# View activity log (user logs)
tail -f ~/Library/Logs/selamta.log

Check Daemon Status

# Check if running
sudo launchctl list | grep selamta

# Should show: com.ethiopia.selamta

View Current Lock Screen Message

sudo defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText

🗑️ Uninstall

cd /path/to/selamta
sudo ./uninstall.sh

This will remove all installed files, stop the daemon, and clear the lock screen message.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Lock screen message not showing?

• Ensure Full Disk Access is granted (see Lock Screen Setup above)
• Try running manually: sudo selamta
• Check error log: tail -f /var/log/selamta_error.log
• Restart your Mac if needed

Notifications not appearing?

Check notification permissions:

1. Go to System Settings → Notifications
2. Look for "Terminal", "Script Editor", or "osascript"
3. Enable "Allow Notifications" for each

Test manually:

# This should show a notification
osascript -e 'display notification "Test notification" with title "Testing"'
# Linux fallback
notify-send "Testing" "Test notification"

If daemon notifications don't work:

• Wait for the next scheduled run (every 15 min)
• Check /var/log/selamta_error.log for errors
• Make sure the daemon is running: sudo launchctl list | grep selamta

Still not working?

• Run: selamta and approve any permission prompts
• Restart your Mac to refresh notification permissions

Daemon not running?

# Check if loaded
sudo launchctl list | grep selamta

# Reload daemon
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ethiopia.selamta.plist

# Check logs
tail -f /var/log/selamta_error.log

Getting "CSV file not found" error?

Make sure the installation completed successfully:

ls -la /usr/local/share/selamta/amharic_cleaned.csv

If missing, reinstall:

sudo ./install.sh

📁 Project Structure

selamta/
├── selamta                    # Main script
├── amharic_cleaned.csv        # Database of 1,440+ proverbs
├── com.ethiopia.selamta.plist # LaunchDaemon configuration
├── install.sh                 # Installation script
├── uninstall.sh               # Uninstallation script
├── README.md                  # This file
└── LICENSE                    # MIT License

📝 Proverb Format

The amharic_cleaned.csv file contains one proverb per line in UTF-8 format:

እህል ያለ ውሀ ንጉስ ያለድሀ ።
ከሰነፍ ገበሬ ማሳ፥ ሞፈር ይቆረጣል።
...

To add your own proverbs, simply add new lines to this file!

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Thanks to dyacob for providing additional proverb data, sourced from GeezOrg.
• Some dataset entries are also from ProverbEval.
• Shout-out to nebiyuelias1 for highlighting the notify-send fallback for Arch/Linux.