XCONSOLE(1) General Commands Manual XCONSOLE(1)

xconsole - monitor system console messages with X

xconsole [-toolkitoption ...] [-file file-name]
         [-notify|-nonotify] [-daemon] [-verbose]
         [-exitOnFail] [-stripNonprint] [-saveLines count]
xconsole -help
xconsole -version

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

Xconsole accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options along with the additional options listed below:

To monitor some other device, use this option to specify the device name. This does not work on regular files as they are always ready to be read from.
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. -notify is the default.
This option causes xconsole to place itself in the background, using fork/exit.
When set, this option directs xconsole to display an informative message in the first line of the text buffer.
When set, this option directs xconsole to exit when it is unable to redirect the console output.
When set, this option directs xconsole to not include any non-printable characters in the current locale in the displayed output.
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).
This option indicates that xconsole should print a usage message and exit.
This option indicates that xconsole should print its version and exit.

This program uses the Athena Text widget, look in the Athena Widget Set documentation for controlling it.

Xconsole otherwise accepts resources of the same names as the command-line options (without the leading dash). "file" is a string type, "saveLines" an integer, and the remaining options are booleans.

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

to get the default host and display number.
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

/usr/share/X11/app-defaults/XConsole
specifies required resources

X(7), xrdb(1), Athena Text widget

Keith Packard (MIT X Consortium)

xconsole 1.1.0 X Version 11