XCONSOLE(1)

💖 XCONSOLE — bestie, it's literally the console but make it X 💖

okay so welcome to xconsole, from the General Commands Manual girlies 💅 this is a little X app that watches your system console messages so you don't have to sit in a tty like it's 1979. iconic behavior honestly.

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✨ NAME ✨

xconsole — monitor system console messages with X 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xconsole [-toolkitoption ...] [-file file-name] [-notify]
[-stripNonprint] [-daemon] [-verbose] [-exitOnFail]

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

The xconsole program displays messages which are usually sent to /dev/console.

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe. it pops your console spam into a nice lil X window so you can stare at kernel drama in style 😭✨

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

xconsole accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options along with the additional options listed below. yes bestie, all of them. we don't gatekeep.

• -file file-name — want to monitor some other device? use this option to specify the device name. ⚠️ heads up though: this does not work on regular files, because regular files are always ready to be read from. so like, don't try it on a normal file, it's giving nothing.
• -notify / -nonotify — when new data are received from the console and the notify option is set, the icon name of the application has " *" appended, so that it is evident even when the application is iconified. so even when you minimize it, you still see the lil * and you're like "oh she's got mail 💌". -notify is the default, no cap.
• -daemon — this option causes xconsole to place itself in the background, using fork/exit. main character energy: she leaves the group chat but stays online 🌈
• -verbose — when set, this option directs xconsole to display an informative message in the first line of the text buffer. she's a talker, she's sharing 🫶
• -exitOnFail — when set, this option directs xconsole to exit when it is unable to redirect the console output. if she can't do the job, she's not sticking around to pretend. periodt 💀
• -saveLines count — when set, xconsole only preserves count lines of message history instead of growing the text buffer without bound (a count of zero — the default — is treated as placing no limit on the history). so like, -saveLines is your "okay bestie let's not hoard every single message forever" setting 🌸 and the default of zero means yes, she will absolutely hoard everything forever, no limits, she's a collector 💖

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⭐ X DEFAULTS ⭐

This program uses the Athena Text widget, look in the Athena Widget Set documentation for controlling it. that's the widget lore, go read it iykyk 📚

xconsole otherwise accepts resources of the same names as the command-line options (without the leading dash). so like file, saveLines, etc. and here's the type tea:

• "file" is a string type
• "saveLines" is an integer
• and the remaining options are booleans ✅

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🧚 WIDGETS 🧚

In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the hierarchy of the widgets which compose xconsole. In the notation below, indentation indicates hierarchical structure. The widget class name is given first, followed by the widget instance name.

XConsole  xconsole
     XConsole  text

look at her. a whole two-widget family. small but mighty 🥹

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. the classic. she needs to know where to show up 💫
• XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. yes it's a whole override situation, she's got layers ✨

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• /etc/X11/app-defaults/XConsole — specifies required resources. this is where the drip lives 👑

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• X(7)
• xrdb(1)
• Athena Text widget

go read those too bestie, knowledge is free and it's cute 📖✨

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Keith Packard (MIT X Consortium) — ty king for this one 🫡💖

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and that's the whole page bestie, no notes, you ate 💅

x Version 11 · xconsole 1.0.8 · XCONSOLE(1) — mwah, drink water, redirect your console output responsibly 🎀🦋💖