annotate-output - annotate program output with time and stream

annotate-output program [args ...]

annotate-output will execute the specified program, while prepending every line with the current time and O for stdout and E for stderr.

$ annotate-output make
21:41:21 I: Started make
21:41:21 O: gcc -Wall program.c
21:43:18 E: program.c: Couldn't compile, and took me ages to find out
21:43:19 E: collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
21:43:19 E: make: *** [all] Error 1
21:43:19 I: Finished with exitcode 2

Since stdout and stderr are processed in parallel, it can happen that some lines received on stdout will show up before later-printed stderr lines (and vice-versa).

This is unfortunately very hard to fix with the current annotation strategy. A fix would involve switching to PTRACE'ing the process. Giving nice a (much) higher priority over the executed program could however cause this behaviour to show up less frequently.

The program does not work as well when the output is not linewise. In particular, when an interactive program asks for input, the question might not be shown until after you have answered it. This will give the impression that the annotated program has hung, while it has not.

annotate-output does not currently accept any command-line options, so --help, --version, and that kind of stuff do not currently work (unless you install /usr/bin/--help ;) ).

Accept --help, --version command-line options.

Get rich with this very sophisticated piece of bash.

The most recent version of this utility is on http://jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl/sw/annotate

This program is community-supported (meaning: you'll need to fix it yourself). Patches are however appreciated, as is any feedback (positive or negative).

annotate-output was written by Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl> This manpage comes under the same copyright as annotate-output itself, read /usr/bin/annotate-output (or whereever you install it) for the details.