README

syslog-notify 0.2
=================

As the name implies, syslog-notify takes messages from the syslog logging
facility and channels them to the freedesktop.org notification system
(http://www.galago-project.org/). A user at the X console thus has timely
notification, ordinarily via pop-up message bubbles, of interesting events
in the logs. Some may recognize the similarity of purpose with xconsole.
Indeed some of the same facilities are used, but the end result is quite
different.

The syslog-notify project exists to produce a utility that, using standard
free desktop interfaces, provides timely notification of interesting
events to a logged-in user. The project shall provide an environment
conducive to teaching free software development tools and techniques.


Installation
------------
Please see file INSTALL. (In brief: ./configure && make && make install)

Configuration
-------------
syslog-notify needs a named pipe (or FIFO) to receive data from syslog.
By default this is /var/spool/syslog-notify. To create it:
mkfifo /var/spool/syslog-notify
This command probably needs to be executed as root.

To direct syslog to send messages to this FIFO, add the following line
to its configuration file:
*.*	|/var/spool/syslog-notify
For standard syslogd, this can be appended to /etc/syslog.conf
For rsyslogd, this line should go in a file by itself (called e.g.
99-notify.conf) in /etc/rsyslog.d

Invocation
----------
Run syslog-notify in a running X session. By default it will start in
the background and run quietly. Use -n to remain in the foreground,
and -f to specify an alternative FIFO to read from.

syslog-notify will exit when the X session is closed.

Contribution
------------
If you with to contribute to the project, please see the file HACKING.


Last modified: 2 January 2009