2019-05-01_Linux_Format

86 LXF249May 2019 MMMay 201983DigaK8D

hotpicks

MAtriXCliEnt

lOGViEwEr

hatsoftwaredoyouuseforviewingalogfile?

Mostpeoplewillfindtheirfavouriteplain-text

editorperfectlyOKforthiskindoftask.

However,whenitcomestoviewingverylongand

complexfiles,itbecomesevidentthatnavigatingand

searchingthroughtheendlesslistoflinestakesextra

effort.Soifyouneedtofindsomethingusefulinsuch

hugetextfiles,withoutgettinglost,tryklogg.

Thisisasmallapplicationtailoredforquickand

comfortablescrollingthroughthousandsoflines.The

exteriorisveryminimalistic,butonceyoustartusing

theappyouimmediatelynoticehowsmartitis.Klogg

knowsthatyourlogfilemaybeconstantlyupdatingat

thetimeofviewing,whichiswhythere’san‘Auto

refresh’optioninthelower-rightcorner.Useitonce

andforgetaboutmanualfilere-openingeverytimean

applicationwritestoyourlogfile.

Anevenmoreimportantfeatureofklogg,however,

issupportforregularexpressions.Thetextfieldabove

thefilecontentsisdesignedforsearching,butitalso

acceptsregexpsthatyoucanuseforcomplex

ecentralisedmessagingisgettingmoreand

morepopularamongprivacy-conscioususers.

RecentlywesawtheKDEprojectswitching

fromIRCtoMatrix,oneofthemostpopular

decentralisedprotocols.Theconceptofsuch

messagingincludeseveryonewhoworksonacomputer

oramobiledevice,soitisnotlimitedtoKDEoreven

Linux.WepickedQuaternion,aniceandrapidly

evolvingMatrixclient,andtrieditinordertoseehow

decentralised(orfederated)instantmessagesfeel,

andinwhatwayitisdifferenttostandardIM.

Quaterniongreetsyouwithaconnectionwindow

andasksforaloginname,apassword,adevicename

andaserveraddress.Theservercanbeanyhostwhich

runstheserverpartofMatrix;forexample,itcanbe

yourownSynapseinstance(Synapseisareference

implementationofaMatrixserver).However,youcan

safelyskipthe‘decentralised’partandjointhemain

publicserverathttps://matrix.org,whichisfinefor

onlinechatting.GettingaMatrixaccountcanbetricky

fornoviceusers,becausetheregistrationimplies

Administering

systems and

applications logs

with klogg is a

true pleasure.

d

w

Quaternion

Klogg

solving a captcha, and therefore it is preferable to

register on a web page. The browser version of Riot.im

is perfect for that: https://riot.im.

Once you register and sign in, it’s possible to join

available rooms or create your own. The federated

network works in such a way that members of one

room can be connected to different Matrix servers –

either public, or their own home instances – but the

chat will still synchronise for everyone.

Using Quaternion for chatting has much in common

with using IRC. The main window with the contents of

the chat reacts to what you write in the text field below,

and accepts standard commands for joining, leaving,

referencing and so on. The list of rooms is on the left,

and the current room members on the right, pretty

much like most other IM clients. Don’t forget to check

the official Quaternion room at #quaternion:matrix.org

to stay in touch with the community!

searches. Klogg also lets you bookmark any line of

the text file simply by putting a blue arrow next to it.

Marked lines can always be listed separately in the

search results area below the main log. Another useful

feature is line colouring, Open the Tools > Filters setup

window and add one or several filters to the list. Each

filter can have its own distinctive colour and therefore

you can mark parts of your log that match given criteria

with custom colour. Life gets really bright with klogg!

We tested it with some typical examples, such as the

Apache Tomcat webserver, and were very happy to see

how the tons of visual garbage turned into a readable

and live-updated journal. Needless to say that klogg

supports tabs (open many logs in one window!) and lets

you set custom text encoding separately for each file.

Version: 0.0.9.3 Web: https://github.

com/QMatrixClient/Quaternion

Version: 19.01.0.318 Web: https://

github.com/variar/klogg

Quaternion is a

simple and robust

Matrix client for

everyday chatting.