You typically start xwatch when activating an X session; e.g.,
from the file which xdm uses to fire up a user's session (this file is
normally /usr/X11/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession). The command that starts
xwatch is something like
xwatch [options] files &
where `options' are optional flags, files are the files to watch, and
the ampersand character is used to start xwatch in the background. The
files to watch are typically in the directory /var/adm/: files which
are created by the syslog daemon (see the file syslogd.conf.SAMPLE in
the distribution for an example). XWatch accepts only filenames which
are:
Other files as stated on the commandline are not monitored. When any
`non-proper' file is given on the commandline, xwatch warns about the
file not being acceptable and deletes it from its list of names.
The options are many, start xwatch without arguments to see what is
supported. All options can also be stated in the file
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XWatch as X resources (see the file
XWatch.ap as an example). In the following enumeration, a nr
denotes a number:
-border nr: Specifies whether xwatch should start
with a border. The nr must be 0 or 1. When you start xwatch
without a border, your window manager may not be able to resize or
even recognize it. Incidentally, this may be what you want -- I use it
to `hide' the presence of xwatch from my window manager fvwm.
-geometry geom: Specifies the display geometry, á-la
other X programs. You can express the geometry in terms of WxH
(width by height), optionally postfixed by +X+Y (x and y offset)
or -X-Y (offsets relative to the lower right corner) and other
combinations.
Note that previous switches that emulated the geometry specification,
such as -xpos and -height, are now obsolete. Use the geometry
setting.
-fg color and -bg color: These options define the
default foreground and background of the watch window.
Note that previous switches, such as -bred and -bblue, are now
obsolete.
-printtime nr: Defines whether xwatch should prefix
any info on the watched files with a timestamp. The nr can be 0 or
zero; the timestamp is printed when nr is 1.
-printname nr: Defines whether xwatch should prefix
any info on the watched files with the filename. The nr is again a
flag, 0 or 1.
-newline nr: Defines whether xwatch should let a
newline follow the time and/or filename stamp, so that the actual
information is displayed on its own line.
-interval nr: Defines the scanning interval. Each nr
seconds, xwatch will check if new information has arrived on the
watched files. The nr may be between 1 and 30 seconds.
-fontsize nr: Defines the initial size of the display
font. The nr may range from 1 to 4; 1 being the smallest font and
4 being the largest.
-fontstyle nr: Defines the style of the used font. The
nr is a number between 0 and 15 (0 being the default). Start
xwatch without arguments or read the application defaults file to
see what fonts the numbers choose.
-firstwarnings nr: Defines whether xwatch should
print initial warnings into the watch window. E.g., you might like to
set firstwarnings to zero, and then start xwatch with the file
argument /var/adm/*. Warnings about, e.g., utmp being a
binary file would then be suppressed.
-printversion nr: Controls whether xwatch prints its
version number and copyright notice upon startup in the watch window.
-gag text: This option, when present, prevents all lines
with text in them from being shown in the display window. You can
specify more than one string to `gag', in that case, separate the
strings with |.
-colorstring col:string: This option causes lines that
contain string to be displayed using the specified color.
The string is matched literally.
E.g., if you use the option -colorstring blue:connection then
all lines containing connection are displayed in pure blue.
You can specify several colorstrings by separating all options with a
| character, as in -colorstring blue:connection|red:error. Note
that, for reasons of shell expansion, you should quote such options on
the commandline.
-title name: This option sets the window title of the
watch window. Note that the title will only be visible when border
is not 0. This option may be useful if you have several XWatch
windows, monitoring different things.
-ignore fileA|fileB|fileC|...: This option is handy if
you start XWatch with a wildcard file argument, but when you want
XWatch not to process some files. The -ignore flag removes
the stated files from the watchlist. Note that, for reasons of shell
commandline expansion, you must quote the file specification (or the
shell will interpret the | characters as pipes). (Thanks, Frank
Brokken, frank@icce.rug.nl for the code).
Debian Maintainer's note: Applications defaults are stored in /etc/X11/app-defaults/XWatch . System adminitrators who want to customize xwatch globally may also create a file /etc/X11/Xresources/xwatch for these configurations by prefixing the entries with Xwatch (see /usr/share/doc/xwatch/README.Debian for an example). Individual users can make the same types of changes in their ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources files.
Before you extensively use the options, create an application defaults
file /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XWatch. You can do so by copying the
file XWatch.ap, extracted from the archive, to
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XWatch. The comments in the distributed
application defaults file explain what you can configure and show
examples.
Some systems do not have the directory /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults. In
that case, you should create the following links:
/usr/X11 should point to your X11 distribution; e.g. to
/usr/X11R6. That way, you always have e.g. /usr/X11/bin, even
after upgrading your X11 distribution. All that is needed is one new
link.
/usr/lib/X11 should point to /usr/X11/lib/X11.
Then edit the file XWatch in the application defaults directory, and
follow the instructions therein to define your favorite settings. If you
need to start xwatch incidentally with another setting, use a flag.
The filename arguments can optionally be followed by a color
specification that applies only to that particular file. E.g., say you
want to see all the files in /var/adm normally in blue text; but you
want to see /var/adm/critical (critical messages from applications) in
yellow and /var/adm/auth (authentification messages) in red. In that
case, the course to follow would be:
-fg blue, or in the application
defaults file.
/var/adm/critical should be yellow. Hence, the
first file argument would be /var/adm/critical:yellow.
/var/adm/auth should be red, hence the
second file argument would be /var/adm/auth:red.
/var/adm/*, without any extra color
specifications.
Such a commandline would cause xwatch to complain about the multiple
presence of /var/adm/critical (once from the separate argument, and
once from the wildcard argument) and similarly about /var/adm/auth. If
this bothers you, turn off the initial warnings (e.g., using
-firstwarnings 0 or in the application defaults file).
Note that besides the color specifications for filenames, you can
also specify coloring for lines that match a given string in all files.
See the above description of the switch -colorstring for more
information.