mtail-1.2.0

by matt hellige (matt@immute.net)

this is a file tailer with color support, written in python. it has a
modest home page at 'http://matt.immute.net/src/mtail'.

this is the 1.2 release. the main reason for this release is to add the --tty
option and support for allow/deny filters. this README will be expanded in
future versions, and there are a few other features i'd like to add, but i'm
not planning on going overboard: i believe in small tools for small jobs.

  - 'drop' filters
  - jython
  - better api 
  - regexp cfg selection
  - mailing list
  - python version support?
  - --tty

mtail now requires thread support from python. please let me know if this
is inconvenient and i can add support for a single-file, non-threaded 
mode.

i've used mtail with a few patchlevels/builds of python 1.5--2.3. there may
still be issues with particular versions or builds, so please let me know i
you think you've found something. also, of course, please let me know if you
find bugs, fix bugs, or make any other improvements, and there's a good chance
they'll end up in a future release (with acknowledgements, of course).

please see the usage ("mtail -?") for details. the config file format is
described in mtailrc.sample, which you should copy to ~/.mtailrc (on 
windows, call the file .mtailrc and place it in a directory referred to by
%HOME%). some additional info may be gotten from comments in the script
itself. 

mtail is derived in small part from colortail-0.3.0 by joakim andersson 
(pt98jan@student.hk-r.se). it is an improvement on that work in several
areas:
  - it is roughly 500 lines of code, rather than roughly 3500.
  - it does not dump core when it encounters long lines.
  - the regexp matching process is simpler and, in my opinion, more intuitive,
    as is the config file format.
  - there is only one config file, which contains coloring rules for an 
    arbitrary number of files.
  - my coloring algorithm only generates escape codes when the color actually
    needs changing, rather than around every single character.
  - by virtue of being written in python, it is less platform-dependent.
  - i support pre-coloring filters.


please see the file LICENSE for copyright details and so on...
share and enjoy!