Rsstail

Rsstail is a command-line syndication feed monitor with behaviour similar to tail -f. Rsstail (Python/feedparser_) is inspired by rsstail_ (C/libmrss_), but provides more customizable output formatting and additional features.

Usage

::

$ rsstail --help Usage: rsstail [options] [ ...]

General Options: -v --verbose increase verbosity -V --version show version and exit -h --help show this help message and exit -x --help-format show formatting help and exit

Feed Options: -i --interval poll every seconds -e --iterations poll times and quit -n --initial initially show items -w --newer show items newer than -b --bytes show only description/comment bytes -r --reverse show in reverse order -s --striphtml strip html tags -o --nofail do not exit on error -q --unique skip duplicate items

Format Options: -t --timestamp show local timestamp -T --utc-timestamp show utc timestamp -l --title show title -u --url show url -d --desc show description -p --pubdate show publication date -U --updated show last update date -a --author show author -c --comments show comments -g --no-heading do not show headings -m --time-format date/time format -f --format output format (overrides other format options)

Examples: rsstail --timestamp --pubdate --title --author rsstail --reverse --title username:password@url rsstail --interval 60|60s|5m|1h --newer "2011/12/20 23:50:12" rsstail --format '%(timestamp)-30s %(title)s %(author)s\n' rsstail --format '{timestamp:<30} {title} {author}\n'

::

$ rsstail --help-format Format specifiers must have one the following forms: %(placeholder)[flags]s {placeholder:flags}

Examples: --format '%(timestamp)s %(pubdate)-30s %(author)s\n' --format '%(title)s was written by %(author)s on %(pubdate)s\n' --format '{timestamp:<20} {pubdate:^30} {author:>30}\n'

Time format takes standard 'sprftime' specifiers: --time-format '%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S' --time-format 'Day of the year: %j Month: %b'

Useful flags in this context are: %(placeholder)-10s - left align and pad %(placeholder)10s - right align and pad {placeholder:<10} - left align and pad {placeholder:>10} - right align and pad {placeholder:^10} - center align and pad

Available placeholders: author comments created desc expired id link pubdate timestamp title updated utc-timestamp

Please note that {placeholder:flags} style placeholders are available only with Python >= 2.7.

Installing

The latest stable version of rsstail can be installed from pypi_:

.. code-block:: bash

$ pip install rsstail

Or simply put the standalone rsstail script in your $PATH and make it executable::

https://github.com/gvalkov/rsstail.py/releases/download/v0.5.0/rsstail.pyz.zip

Colorizing output

Rsstail's' output can be piped to one of the many console colorizers. Consider using one of the following tools: clide_, multitail_, ccze_, colorize_, colorex_ or colout_.

Example with clide_::

$ rsstail <options> \
| clide -e '/(Title|Pubdate|Author|Link|Description):/g,fg=yellow,bold' \
        -e '/^.*FAILURE.*$/,fg=red,bold \

Example with multitail_::

# add to /etc/multitail.conf
colorscheme:rsstail.py:console syndication feed monitor
cs_re:red,,bold:^.*FAILURE.*$
cs_re:cyan:(:|/)
cs_re:yellow:^.......... ..:..:..
cs_re:green:(Title|Author|Link|Pubdate):

$ multitail -cS "rsstail.py" -l "rsstail <options>"

These two examples are barely touching the surface of what clide_ and multitail_ can do. Refer to the documentation of these excellent projects for more information.

Shell completion

Rsstail comes with shell completion scripts for bash and zsh.

- **bash:** copy rsstail.sh_ to ``/etc/bash_completion.d/``.
- **zsh:**  copy rsstail.zsh_ anywhere in ``$fpath``.

If you are installing system-wide, the setup script will attempt to place these files in the right place.

Similar projects

- rsstail_
- feedstail_
- theyoke_
- wag_

License

Rsstail is released under the terms of the Revised BSD License_.

.. _rsstail: http://www.vanheusden.com/rsstail/ .. _feedstail: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/feedstail/ .. _theyoke: http://github.com/mackers/theyoke/ .. _wag: http://github.com/knobe/wag/ .. _ccze: http://bonehunter.rulez.org/CCZE.html .. _clide: http://suso.suso.org/xulu/Clide .. _colorize: http://colorize.raszi.hu/ .. _colorex: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/colorex/ .. _colout: http://nojhan.github.io/colout/ .. _multitail: http://www.vanheusden.com/multitail/ .. _feedparser: http://code.google.com/p/feedparser/ .. _libmrss: http://www.autistici.org/bakunin/libmrss/doc/ .. _Revised BSD License: https://raw.github.com/gvalkov/rsstail.py/master/LICENSE

.. _rsstail.sh: https://raw.github.com/gvalkov/rsstail.py/master/etc/rsstail.sh .. _rsstail.zsh: https://raw.github.com/gvalkov/rsstail.py/master/etc/_rsstail .. _pypi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/rsstail