I have this in my .bashrc beep() { if [ $? -eq 0 ] then file=/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav ret='true' else file=/usr/sha

I have this in my .bashrc beep() { if [ $? -eq 0 ] then file=/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav ret='true' else file=/usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav ret='false' fi (aplay $file 2>/dev/null >/dev/null &); $ret } Can be called like this: $ command ; beep Depending on the return value it'll give a different alert. It preserves the return value so you can still chain other dependent commands after it. This depends on the libpurple sounds to be where they are (works in ubuntu at least)