root-tail - print text directly to X11 root window
root-tail [-g|--geometry GEOMETRY]
[-fn|--font FONTSPEC] [--color color]
[--reload SEC COMMAND] [--shade]
[--outline] [--minspace] [--noflicker]
[-f|--fork] [--reverse] [--whole]
[--partial] [--update] [--cont STRING]
[--wordwrap] [--justify] [--noinitial] [--frame]
[--windowed} [-id ID] [-i|--interval
SECONDS] [-V] file1[,color[,desc]] [file2[,color[,desc]]]
Displays a given file anywhere on your X11 root window, i.e. it is
kind of tail -f for multiple files using your desktop background as output
window.
All non-option arguments on the command line are files to be
logged. A null desc (example: "/var/log/messages,red,") will
prevent the printing of a description and the []'s.
- --color
COLOR
- Use COLOR as default.
- --font | -fn
FONTSPEC
- Use font FONTSPEC. This can be either a fixed width font like
-fn fixed or any font using -fn
'-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*' with the appropriate fields
filled out (see xfontsel). Specifying a different FONTSPEC before each
filename will cause each file to be displayed in a different font.
- -f | --fork
- Forks to the background.
- --reverse
- Display the files in reverse order, with the newest lines at the top.
- --whole
- Only display whole lines. If the last line of a file doesn't yet end with
a newline character then wait until it does before displaying it. This is
the default if more than one file is being displayed.
- --partial
- This is the opposite of the --whole option (see above). It displays
lines even if they don't yet have a newline at the end. This is the
default if only one file is being displayed.
- --update
- Update partial lines 'in place' if they are still on the screen when they
are updated in their files. Using --update automatically turns on
--partial.
- --cont
STRING
- When partial lines are broken into two lines in the display, prefix the
2nd line with STRING. Defaults to "|| ". Specify the
"--whole" argument to ensure partial lines are never
displayed, or specify "--update" to attempt to
"repair" broken lines in-place.
- --cont-color
COLOR
- Use COLOR when displaying the continuation string (as optionally specified
with the --cont option above).
- --wordwrap
- The default behaviour is to fit as much as possible onto each line of
output, even if this means splitting a word between one line and the next.
The --wordwrap argument splits lines at spaces if possible.
- --justify
- After wrapping long lines, attempt to justify the text to produce a smooth
right-hand margin. Implies --wordwrap.
- --reload SEC
COMMAND
- Re-display the file(s) and run COMMAND every SEC seconds. The default is
to never re-display the file(s).
- --shade
- Add black shading to the font.
- --outline
- Add a black outline to the font (making redraws quite a bit slower).
- --minspace
- Use minimum linespace even when using shading or outlining. This might
result in leftover pixels (dependign on font and logfile content).
- --noflicker
- Use slower but flicker-free update.
- --noinitial
- Don't display the end of the file(s) initially.
- --windowed
- Create a new window instead of reusing the root window. The newly created
window covers the whole screen, puts itself behind all other windows and
and does not accept events. Use this option if you use a compositing
manager suihc as xcompmgr or compton, as the compositing extension has
been very badly designed and cannot handle root windows correctly.
- -id ID
- Use the given window ID for output instead of the root window.
- -i | --interval
SECONDS
- Use the specified sleeping interval between checks instead of the default
2.4 seconds. Fractional values are OK.
- -V
- Print version information.
- --frame
- Draw a frame around the selected area. This is useful when trying to find
the perfect geometry.
root-tail --windowed -g 800x250+100+50 -font 10x20
/var/log/messages,green -font 12x24 /var/log/secure,red,'ALERT'
Some desktop environments open a virtual root window and make it
difficult to share it. If you cannot see anything after starting root-tail,
try the --windowed option, a setting "allow programs on desktop"
or similar, or manually specify a window id.
Should you happen to find any bugs please fix them and send me a
diff.
NOTE: This program was modified by Marc Lehmann
<schmorp@schmorp.de>, who couldn't reach the original author. Please
direct bug-reports etc. to root-tail@schmorp.de.
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/root-tail.html