bcat: view console output in a browser
- Tutorial
I was surprised to find that no one on Habrahabr wrote about bcat . This is a small convenient utility for viewing console output in a browser. Do you have a script that returns HTML? Bcat! Need a simple preview for the Markdown formatted README file you just added? Bcat! Write a website parser and want to see what kind of error the site returns? Bcat! There is a big log, and you want it to appear in black and white, and be convenient to read? Well, you get it, right? :)
The program runs on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD (and, theoretically, on any UNIX-like platform with freedesktop.org integration).
You can use gem to install bcat:
Rack is installed with bcat (unless, of course, it has already been installed before).
To check, you can try to open the calendar for 2014:
If a new tab opens in the browser and a calendar appears in it, then everything works correctly.
View Logs
The text in the browser will be updated as new lines appear in the log.
The log on the remote server can be viewed as follows:
Use as a pager
You can use bcat as a pager for different programs.
For man:
For git:
After that, when you start, for example, “man grep” or “git log”, the focus switches to the browser window, and the command output opens in a new tab. By the way, if color output is enabled in Git, then the colors will be displayed in the browser too.
View clipboard
For Linux:
For Mac OS X:
Markdown
View a Markdown file with formatting:
Teams, of course, can be docked as you like. For example, you can view the contents of the clipboard with Markdown formatting like this (for Linux):
Or so (for Mac OS X)
Testing the Django template
Let's say that in the current working directory there is a template template.html, and you want to see how it will be displayed with a specific context.
Create the preview_template.py file and run the following command:
The browser immediately opens the result of rendering the template.
Of course, these are just examples, but in general, you can use bcat for a huge variety of everyday tasks.
The program runs on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD (and, theoretically, on any UNIX-like platform with freedesktop.org integration).
You can use gem to install bcat:
gem install bcat
Rack is installed with bcat (unless, of course, it has already been installed before).
To check, you can try to open the calendar for 2014:
python -c "import calendar ; print calendar.HTMLCalendar().formatyear(2014)" | bcat
If a new tab opens in the browser and a calendar appears in it, then everything works correctly.
View Logs
tail -n 1000 -f /var/log/messages | bcat
The text in the browser will be updated as new lines appear in the log.
The log on the remote server can be viewed as follows:
ssh mywebsite.com 'sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log' | bcat
Use as a pager
You can use bcat as a pager for different programs.
For man:
export MANPAGER='sh -c "col -b | bcat"'For git:
export GIT_PAGER=bcat
After that, when you start, for example, “man grep” or “git log”, the focus switches to the browser window, and the command output opens in a new tab. By the way, if color output is enabled in Git, then the colors will be displayed in the browser too.
View clipboard
For Linux:
xclip -o -selection c | bcat
For Mac OS X:
pbpaste | bcat
Markdown
View a Markdown file with formatting:
markdown README.md | bcat
Teams, of course, can be docked as you like. For example, you can view the contents of the clipboard with Markdown formatting like this (for Linux):
xclip -o -selection c | markdown | bcat
Or so (for Mac OS X)
pbpaste | markdown | bcat
Testing the Django template
Let's say that in the current working directory there is a template template.html, and you want to see how it will be displayed with a specific context.
Create the preview_template.py file and run the following command:
python preview_template.py template.html "{'username': 'Његош'}"The browser immediately opens the result of rendering the template.
Of course, these are just examples, but in general, you can use bcat for a huge variety of everyday tasks.
See also
- Upgraded Unix Way or pipe to browser
- Sponge command: sponge for standard input
- Linux pipes tips & tricks