.\" -*-nroff-*-
.TH xcatch 1 "15 December 1998" "Straylight/Edgeware" "xtoys"
.SH NAME
xcatch \- catch input and trap it in a window
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B xcatch
.RI [ gtk-options ...]
.RB [ \-F
.IR font ]
.RB [ \-f
.IR file ]
.RI [ command
.RI [ args ]...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B xcatch
program watches an input file descriptor (usually a pipe) and displays
data from it in a GTK window.  The window is displayed only when data is
first read from the descriptor; if no data ever arrives, the window is
not created.  If a file is specified using the
.B \-f
option, it is read; otherwise, if a
.I command
is specified, it is executed with standard output and standard error
redirected to
.BR xcatch ;
otherwise,
.B xcatch
reads from its own standard input.
.PP
It is better to write
.IP
.B xcatch
.I command args
.PP
than
.IP
.I command args
.B | xcatch
.PP
The former allows
.B xcatch
to collect the exit status of the
.I command
and (a) report it in its window, and (b) provide it (or a version of it)
as its own exit status for the caller to check.  It also enables
.B xcatch
to put the command line in its title bar.
.SS Options
.TP
.BI "\-F, \-\-font " font
Display output text in
.I font
rather than GTK's default.
.TP
.BI "\-f, \-\-file " file
Read data from
.I file
instead of standard output.
.SH BUGS
None currently known.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR gtk-options (7).
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding (mdw@distorted.org.uk).