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seetxt

NAME

seetxt/seeman - GUI text file and manual page ("manpage") viewer for X windows.

SYNOPSIS

seetxt [textfile] [-x search term]
seeman [manpage] [-s section] [-x search term]

DESCRIPTION

Seetxt and seeman (collectively, "see") are the same program, but the name you use to call it indicates whether you are opening a man page or a regular text file. If there is no filename on the command line, both words mean the same thing. See is a lightweight, read-only text file viewer capable of displaying unix-style manual pages. It has a number of unique features, such as saving mark-up for viewed files while leaving them unaltered. Document "meta-data" is maintained independently for each user and loaded automatically, allowing you to keep bookmarks and highlights for read-only system files (including man pages) in a simple and intuitive manner. See also does layered finds, hyper-linked apropos searches, and can be set to monitor an existing file (such as a log) for changes.

By default, see runs in "server mode": command-line requests will be sent to the running server rather than starting a new instance. This is explained in more detail under "SERVER MODE", below. The primary intent is to facilitate integration with file browsers, most of which allow you to register a command to use for viewing a text document.

See uses the titlebar to issue some program messages, so pay attention. You can DRAG AND DROP a text file from another application window into the see text area to view it (this does not move or copy the file anywhere, and is not applicable to man pages).

INVOCATION OPTIONS

To start "see" (or to send a request to the existing one), use either seetxt or seeman, then the file name, then any options. If no filename is given, a new instance of see is launched. If the filename itself begins with a dash, use the full pathname or "./". You can also view out-of-path manual pages by using the full pathname or "./". See will refer to such pages (in the filelist, etc.) as belonging to section "***".

All options are a single character preceded by a dash.

-s section

Used to indicate a manual page section to use instead of the default, eg. "seeman printf -s3". Obviously, do not use this with out-of-path manpages.

-x term

See will perform an initial find-all text search for "term", highlighting all instances.

-K

The see server is actually a forked process which should shut down when it's parent process (the GUI) does (so when running in server mode, there will be two pid's). "-K" literally issues a "killall -9 seetxt & killall -9 seeman" which will destroy all running instances, visible or not, in order to free the local socket used by the server. Generally this is unnecessary and is simply provided for occasional convenience.

-v

Show version. This documentation is for version 0.61.

-h

Show a helpful "usage" message.

TOGGLES, INDICATOR LIGHTS, AND THE VISIBLE INTERFACE

There are five toggle buttons on the see interface, two of which look like little round red lights that blink green when set. Click directly on the light to activate it. The leftmost light toggles the server on and off (see SERVER MODE, below). The rightmost light sets a watch on the current file, which means it will be reloaded at an interval to include any new changes. The default for this interval is ten seconds (see CONFIGURATION, below). NOTE: Files over a default 1 Mb are not reloaded -- they are tailed. This means if the file size has increased, an amount equal to the difference will be taken from the end and added to the display. That works fine if "the change" was an addition to the end (such as occurs with a normal log). But if you want to monitor a very large text file for other (random) changes, you will have to reload via the filelist. This does not apply to man pages. You can change the default 1 Mb limit, see CONFIGURATION.

The three buttons in the center, around the text entry, are controls for text searching. If you type something into the text entry and press enter, see will perform a "find all" style search, highlighting the term in yellow where found and moving the view to include the first instance. This may take a while for numerous finds in large files (eg, several minutes for 50,000+ finds in 10 mb of text, depending on your hardware) -- the titlebar will read "Searching for" while the search is in progress, and switch back to the file name when finished. You can now advance the cursor to the next instance with ctrl-n, and back to the previous instance with ctrl-p (hold these down to scroll). If you toggle "push" and enter a new search term, all the instances of the last search will change to a purple highlight and the new term will be yellow. Reloading, or setting a watch which causes reloading, will erase the highlights. Don't worry, there's a command history (see below).

Normally, searches are case-insensitive. To make the search case-sensitive, toggle "case". To process the search term as a regular expression, toggle "regexp" (eg: to find "for" but not "foreach", search for "\bfor\b" as a regexp; more information on using regular expressions is available on the www). The number to the left of the text entry shows the number of instances found in the last search. The text entry has a command history which is not saved. To flip through the history use the up and down arrow(s). If you are feeling lazy and don't want to move the mouse, you can use the old "ctrl-/" to set cursor focus to the command entry after clearing it, ready for your next move.

There are a few key combinations that may be useful in navigating the text area: alt-left moves to the beginning of a line, alt-right jumps 27 characters at a time. When you load a file from the file list, see tries to pick up where you left off, so the normative "ctrl-home" may be useful as is ctrl-end.

MAIN MENU

The main menu is invoked with the right button when the mouse pointer is in the main text area. All the entries have ctrl macros or "hotkeys" which work anywhere, if appropriate. There can be as many as twenty items on the menu if you have a seedata file and "copy to" directory defined in ~/.seeconfig. Some items (eg, copy, help), are self-explanatory and not included here.

file list (ctrl-f)

See maintains a list of previously viewed files, in "last in, first out" order. You can select a file from this list by double left clicking on it. See does not use tabbing, but when you switch files, the last position of cursor is recorded, so you can switch back and forth between files and maintain a line position without bothering to place a bookmark, etc. That's why I decided to use a crosshair cursor: if you know where you want to return to, remember to leave the cursor there before you load the next file. This all depends on the existence of the "filelist", which if you don't define one see will use a default in its runtime directory (see CONFIGURATION).

see bookmarks (ctrl-s)

If any bookmarks previously existed for the current file (in its current filesystem location!), they will be loaded with the file. Also included in the view are any fresh bookmarks, which are automatically saved (if you have a seedata file). Bookmarks are displayed as a line number and, to help identify them, the first 31 characters in the line (if the line is blank or contains less than 31 characters, two or more text lines may appear next to the number). You move to the bookmark by double left clicking on it. You can DELETE a bookmark from the list by using both buttons/button-3. Bookmarks are saved automatically as they are placed and deleted. See loads bookmarks based on the full pathname of the file (except for man pages), so if the file has been moved, the saved bookmarks will not appear. However, the bookmark index used for all files is itself just one plain text file which can be easily edited if need be (see CONFIGURATION, below).

place bookmark (ctrl-m)

Add a new bookmark for the line containing the text cursor. Bookmarks are automatically saved (if you have a seedata file).

reload (ctrl-l)

This updates the display to reflect the current state of the file. With files over 1 MB, the file is "tailed" (see NOTE in the previous section), which is useful for long logs, etc. To actually reload the entire file (if it is that big), use the file list (the first file in the file list is always the last file loaded). The cursor and view will return to the same line number as before (which may or may not be the same line, obviously), unless this is a large "tailed" file, in which case the view moves to the end.

apropos search (ctrl-a)

List the results of an "apropos" search for man pages in the main text area, using whatever term is in the bottom text entry. Individual page names are double underlined green and hyper-linked. Double left click (with the familiar little hypertext hand pointer) to display.

(un)number lines (ctrl-3)

Add or remove line numbers on the left. Line numbers are only available on files with less than 100000 lines. When performing searches on files longer than ten thousand lines, it is recommended you turn line numbering off first.

bold blue (ctrl-h)

This applies a "bold blue" tag to the currently selected text. This mark-up will appear again in see whenever you load this file (if the path is the same), until you "untag" it.

italic red (alt-r)

Applies an "italic red" tag to the currently selected text. What was just said about italic red is equally true of bold blue.

untag (ctrl-u)

Removes any tagging/mark-up from the currently selected text.

wrap mode (ctrl-w)

Gives you three choices for breaking lines longer than the display: no wrap, wrap on word, or exact wrap. The default is wrap on word.

send to editor (ctrl-e)

This issues a user defined command to send the file to a text editor. Personal fav: "vim --remote". However, since most installations do not have vim compiled this way, the default is "gedit". To find out how a user can define this command, see CONFIGURATION, below.

copy out (ctrl-o)

This will appear if you have a valid "copy to" directory defined in your ~/.seeconfig file. It takes whatever is in the text entry as the name for the file and copies the contents of the text buffer to this file, with the "copy-to" path appended (you can include subdirectories, and parents via ../../). If the buffer contains a text file, the new file will be an exact copy. NOTE: If you have text selected, see will only include the selected text in the new file, so you can save part of the buffer rather than all of it. Copy-out is most useful in combination with the next option...

execute (ctrl-x)

This executes whatever is in the text entry as a command via the shell and prints the output in the text view buffer. You are welcome to attempt any command you wish here; see updates the display, so you can view the output of (for example) wvdial as it happens. However, you cannot interact and this is not really intended for use as an actual terminal or console, but more for performing operations on the content of the text buffer, which see will write out to a temporary file, substituting the temp file name (~/.seeTMP) for SEEBUF if you include "SEEBUF" in the command. EXAMPLE: if you want to see only the lines in the buffer containing the word "word", type 'grep word SEEBUF'; this will clear the display and print the result as if the previous display were a file you just grepped. But watch out: SEEBUFF does not count! IMPORTANT: If you have text selected in the display, see will only use the selected text for the temp file, so you can perform such an operation on only part of the buffer rather than the whole thing. You can save your results using "copy-out", above, and in fact this option will only appear in the menu if you have a "copy to" directory defined (see CONFIGURATION). By default, see redirects stderr to the display as well by appending "2>&1" to the commmand. If for some reason you do not want this, set "no redirect" (see CONFIGURATION again). You also get the return value (usually 0) in the titlebar.

reconfigure (F2)

This reprocesses your configuration file (~./seeconfig) and shows you the "Configuration" screen again. If the choices that appear there are not what you wanted, there is a mistake in the file. See does not reset everything first, so if you remove a line such as "seedata:" or "text font:" they will remain set to the same value as previously until you restart.

SERVER MODE

The only way to load a new file into a running instance of see (unless it's in the "file list", above) is to use drag n' drop, an apropos search (for manpages), or the server.

"Server mode" allows you to send remote commands to see, primarily so that it can be included in the user menu of a file browser, operated by some other application, or operated from a command-line. EXAMPLE: To use see with GNOME's nautilus file browser, click "open with" on a text file, select a custom command, and type "seetxt". From now on, nautilus will offer you the option of viewing text files with seetxt.

While the server is running, a green light on the left will be blinking, and any command line invocation which includes a filename or manpage will affect the server, and a new instance of see will not be launched (this includes requests from other applications such as nautilus). Most web browsers work this way -- if you click on a link in your email client, it will appear in the running web browser and not launch another one. So, using the F2 user menu of midnight commander (another example), you could run see and mc side by side and opt to view selected files in see rather than using mc's internal viewer.

The server uses a local socket which defaults to ~/.seesock but it can be set in the configuration file -- this way, users on a network can each run their own server. Although it should not usually happen, if you try to start see and keep getting told that a server is already running when you don't see one anywhere, try "seetxt -K" (see INVOCATION OPTIONS, above).

Only one server is allowed per socket. Requests are sent to the socket listed in .seeconfig, if there is one. You can turn a server off by clicking the flashing green and red indicator on the left side of the interface. If there is no server running, a command line invocation will start a new instance of see with a running server. Drag and drop works with or without the server on.

CONFIGURATION

See does not require any configuration to work, although without it you cannot save any bookmarks. An example configuration file is installed into INSTALLDIR/share/seetxt-runtime (INSTALLDIR is set at build time, probably /usr/local if you built from source and didn't choose anything different, or /usr if you installed from a pre-built package). Copy .seeconfig into your home directory and adapt it to your needs. Configuration can affect the following:

•

text font (eg, "text font: helvetica 12")

•

text area dimensions (eg, "dimensions: 1200 800")

•

file load confirmation: normally, see asks you to confirm when a new file is to be loaded. You can skip this by including "no confirm:" on a line by itself in ~/.seeconfig; file load confirmation windows should appear on top of the see main window, but when working across different workspaces they may appear in one place or the other. Using "no confirm", the file will just load without the user being asked anything.

•

"seedata:" this is the location of a text file to store mark-up and bookmarks in, eg. "seedata: /home/user/seedata". DO NOT USE THE TILDE (~) anywhere in ~/.seeconfig. With or without a config file, the first time you use see, it will create a seedata file for you (defaulting to ~/.seedata). This is the only permanent file automatically created in your home directory.

•

"filelist:" this is the location of a text file to keep the history of viewed files in. It defaults to INSTALLDIR/share/seetxt-runtime/filelist, which is world read/writable. Multiple instances of see may share the same filelist; it is not locked or held open.

•

"seesocket:" a path and name to use as the socket for the server; the default is ~/.seesock (again, do not use a tilde). The full length of this pathname cannot be more than 106 characters. DO NOT ACTUALLY CREATE THIS FILE.

•

"watch interval:" is the number of seconds between updates when a file is "watched" (using the right side blinking toggle, see TOGGLES AND INTERFACE, above); the default is ten seconds. NOTE: The light blinks at a constant rate unrelated to the watch time.

•

text area background (eg, "background: CornflowerBlue") The color tags used by see (red, blue, green, and cyan) are reasonably high contrast, but if you want to adjust the background for any reason pick a color from /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt (except ones with spaces in the name), or use the hexbyte RGB format (#ffffff).

•

the file size boundary at which to use "tailing" rather than a complete reload (eg, "tail at: 5000000"). By default 1000000 bytes. See the NOTE at the beginning of TOGGLES, INDICATOR LIGHTS, AND THE VISIBLE INTERFACE.

•

a directory into which to place files from a "copy out" operation using the MAIN MENU. eg, "copy to: /home/user/Desktop". If you do not have a copy-to directory, you cannot perform any copy-outs.

•

stderr redirection with the "execute" menu option (see above). To turn stderr redirection off, include "no redirect" on a line by itself.

•

editor command (eg, "editor: vim --remote"); see MAIN MENU above for a more detailed explanation. Incorrect values in your .seeconfig file may cause a malfunction ;)

ERRORS

Most error messages, either in the titlebar or a pop-up, should be self-explanatory.

Short Read on file

This can happen if you try to load a non-text file, since see will stop at a zero byte, meaning the amount of text read is less than the actual file length.

Could not create temp file

See uses your home directory for two very short lived possible temporary files, .seeTMP and .seeTP (these should never be left behind as garbage and you can erase them if you find them). Without the permission to do this, functionality will be reduced.

Unable to update filelist! (Error #3)

This will only happen if see is able to read the filelist, but not write to it. In that case you either need to change/add the "filelist:" entry in ~/.seeconfig or have the permission to write the file. The default system wide file list should have been set mode 666 at installation; if not, your system adminstrator needs to "chmod 666" the filelist.

Can't Validate Text (Error #4)

There is a non-utf8 character (something unprintable) in your file.

Out of Memory

Your computer will never run out of memory, I promise.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2008, 2009 Mark Eriksen. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html).