ROOTTAIL
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 2004-03-27
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NAME
root-tail - print text directly to X11 root window
SYNOPSIS
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]]]
DESCRIPTION
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.
General Options
- --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.
-
EXAMPLE
root-tail --windowed -g 800x250+100+50 -font 10x20 /var/log/messages,green -font 12x24 /var/log/secure,red,'ALERT'
BUGS
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 to find 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 <pcg@goof.com>, who
couldn't reach the original author. Please direct bug-reports etc. to
pcg@goof.com.
http://root-tail.plan9.de/
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- General Options
-
- EXAMPLE
-
- BUGS
-
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Time: 01:24:48 GMT, June 16, 2019