How can I make a command run once the next time I log in?

Question

How can I schedule a command to run the next time I log in? I don't want it to run every time, just once.

Solution 1

This is really "ugly" solution, but you can add classic logon/startup script and after first run remove this script automatically.

#!/bin/bash

your command &
rm /path/to/script/yourscript.sh

The script will be removed, so it can't be started again.

(I'm sure there's a bettter solution, but I don't know it.)

Solution 2

running a script has couple of options How to run scripts on start up?

I would try .gnomerc one, you can make it one time by making your script remove itself from .gnomerc once its done.

Comments

[karthick87]

Add your command in /etc/rc.local ?

[Michael Gundlach]

Similar to How to run scripts on start up of ubuntu?

[RusGraf]

This gets the job done. For insurance, I went with mv "$0" /home/user/.old-scripts/ instead of rm.

[Olathe]

This question is about running it during the next log in only, not during every start of the system.

[Scaine]

True enough. I saw the 'autostart' tag and took it from there.