= upmsg

...the simple dmesg-notification extension...

This little tool is supposed to be an extension for the dmesg-command in linux. Since timestamps (as long as there are activated) only show seconds.nanoseconds, they`re not very human-readable.

upmsg is fixing that. You can format the Output to actual uptime, actual time, and how many minutes and seconds (and so far) ago the certain events happened.

There is also a daemon mode which notifies you using libnotify and your installed notification-daemon. Everytime an event happens you will be notified. (in you windowmanager of choice in a nice little bubble)

== Installation

=== Dependencies:

• System:

  • libnotify(=>0.7.0)
  • ruby(=> 1.9.0)
  • some notification daemon like xfce-notifyd, notification-daemon or others

• Ruby(Gems):

  • ruby-libnotify(=>0.5.0)

=== Installationguide

Until there is a Configuration and a GUI there will be no significant idea to install, since there are no repositories (Linux-Distribution-Repositories) which include this little tool.

So i'll explain the most important things here.

Firstly it's important to set timestamp logging in your Kernel. Normally you can do this with an Option in your bootloader. As far as i know, since 2.35.1 you have to set the Kerneloption

printk.time=1

(In Grub it's in the kernel line, after all the important stuff like where the kernel is located) So this will enable timestamping in your Kernel.

Now you just copy the script in a place in your PATH, preferably in /usr/bin

After this is done, you should write the following line in your autstart script. (The one your WindowManager procures for you)

upmsg -d &

== Usage

There are only two ways to use this script, yet. Firstly to use at as an output instead of the dmesg-command. To use upmsg in this way you just call

upmsg

from your shell of choice, or

upmsg -i

if you want to see the actual uptime after the modified dmesg-ouput to correspond it with the events.

Secondly there is the daemon mode. Daemon mode is start with the command:

upmsg -d

However i advise to start it in the background by setting an & after the command.

Daemon mode means, that the program will run and check for updates in the dmesg output (by default in 5 second steps). If there is new output, a notification will be send showing the event and the current uptime and actual time.

==== Other Options:

The option -f represents advanced formatting for the timestamp-box in eventmessages (dmesg). It expects another option to specify which format should be used:

upmsg -ft

In dmesg messages (Output) there will be actual Timestamps in place of Timestampcodes. (UTC formatted):

upmsg -fu