1ROOTTAIL(1) General Commands Manual ROOTTAIL(1)
2
6 root-tail - print text directly to X11 root window
7
9 root-tail [-g|--geometry GEOMETRY] [-fn|--font FONTSPEC] [--color
10 color] [--reload SEC COMMAND] [--shade] [--outline] [--minspace]
11 [--noflicker] [-f|--fork] [--reverse] [--whole] [--partial] [--update]
12 [--cont STRING] [--wordwrap] [--justify] [--noinitial] [--frame]
13 [--windowed} [-id ID] [-i|--interval SECONDS] [-V] file1[,color[,desc]]
14 [file2[,color[,desc]]]
15
17 Displays a given file anywhere on your X11 root window, i.e. it is kind
18 of tail -f for multiple files using your desktop background as output
19 window.
20 All non-option arguments on the command line are files to be logged. A
22 null desc (example: "/var/log/messages,red,") will prevent the printing
23 of a description and the []'s.
24 General Options
26 --color COLOR
27 Use COLOR as default.
28 --font | -fn FONTSPEC
30 Use font FONTSPEC. This can be either a fixed width font like
31 -fn fixed or any font using -fn '-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*'
32 with the appropriate fields filled out (see xfontsel). Specify‐
33 ing a different FONTSPEC before each filename will cause each
34 file to be displayed in a different font.
35 -f | --fork
37 Forks to the background.
38 --reverse
40 Display the files in reverse order, with the newest lines at the
41 top.
42 --whole
44 Only display whole lines. If the last line of a file doesn't yet
45 end with a newline character then wait until it does before dis‐
46 playing it. This is the default if more than one file is being
47 displayed.
48 --partial
50 This is the opposite of the --whole option (see above). It dis‐
51 plays lines even if they don't yet have a newline at the end.
52 This is the default if only one file is being displayed.
53 --update
55 Update partial lines 'in place' if they are still on the screen
56 when they are updated in their files. Using --update automati‐
57 cally turns on --partial.
58 --cont STRING
60 When partial lines are broken into two lines in the display,
61 prefix the 2nd line with STRING. Defaults to "|| ". Specify the
62 "--whole" argument to ensure partial lines are never displayed,
63 or specify "--update" to attempt to "repair" broken lines in-
64 place.
65 --cont-color COLOR
67 Use COLOR when displaying the continuation string (as optionally
68 specified with the --cont option above).
69 --wordwrap
71 The default behaviour is to fit as much as possible onto each
72 line of output, even if this means splitting a word between one
73 line and the next. The --wordwrap argument splits lines at spa‐
74 ces if possible.
75 --justify
77 After wrapping long lines, attempt to justify the text to pro‐
78 duce a smooth right-hand margin. Implies --wordwrap.
79 --reload SEC COMMAND
81 Re-display the file(s) and run COMMAND every SEC seconds. The
82 default is to never re-display the file(s).
83 --shade
85 Add black shading to the font.
86 --outline
88 Add a black outline to the font (making redraws quite a bit
89 slower).
90 --minspace
92 Use minimum linespace even when using shading or outlining. This
93 might result in leftover pixels (dependign on font and logfile
94 content).
95 --noflicker
97 Use slower but flicker-free update.
98 --noinitial
100 Don't display the end of the file(s) initially.
101 --windowed
103 Create a new window instead of reusing the root window. The
104 newly created window covers the whole screen, puts itself behind
105 all other windows and and does not accept events. Use this
106 option if you use a compositing manager suihc as xcompmgr or
107 compton, as the compositing extension has been very badly
108 designed and cannot handle root windows correctly.
109 -id ID Use the given window ID for output instead of the root window.
111 -i | --interval SECONDS
113 Use the specified sleeping interval between checks instead of
114 the default 2.4 seconds. Fractional values are OK.
115 -V Print version information.
117 --frame
119 Draw a frame around the selected area. This is useful when try‐
120 ing to find the perfect geometry.
121
123 root-tail --windowed -g 800x250+100+50 -font 10x20 /var/log/mes‐
124 sages,green -font 12x24 /var/log/secure,red,'ALERT'
125
127 Some desktop environments open a virtual root window and make it diffi‐
128 cult to share it. If you cannot see anything after starting root-tail,
129 try the --windowed option, a setting "allow programs on desktop" or
130 similar, or manually specify a window id.
131 Should you happen to find any bugs please fix them and send me a diff.
133 NOTE: This program was modified by Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>,
135 who couldn't reach the original author. Please direct bug-reports etc.
136 to root-tail@schmorp.de.
137 http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/root-tail.html
1394.2 Berkeley Distribution 2019-06-14 ROOTTAIL(1)