root-tail (1)

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] [-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.

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.

-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 -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 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 <[email protected]>, who couldn't reach the original author. Please direct bug-reports etc. to [email protected].

http://root-tail.plan9.de/