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ROOTTAIL(1)		     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]  [--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 de-
     scription 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  differ-
	    ent  FONTSPEC  before  each filename will cause each file to be dis-
	    played 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 possi-
	    ble.

     --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 de-
	    fault 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 con-
	    tent).

     --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 win-
	    dows 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  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

4.2 Berkeley Distribution	   2019-06-14			     ROOTTAIL(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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