DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

Search: Section:  


ROOTTAIL(1)            DragonFly General Commands Manual           ROOTTAIL(1)

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] [-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 comamnd 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.

EXAMPLE

root-tail -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/ 4.2 Berkeley Distribution 2004-03-27 ROOTTAIL(1)

Search: Section: