Command: monitor

Syntax

monitor

Description

Display the monitor log window.

Parameters

None

Switches

• -ch=<chan>
  Send monitor output to a text channel already open for output. Such direction of output does not interfere with any output to the monitor window.

• -cl
  Clear the contents of the monitor log window. Note: this does not clear the contents of the retained log.

• -fo=<font>
  The font to be used in the window. This must be a fixed font. If omitted a default font is used.

• -ic
  Open the window iconic, or iconize it if it is already open. Omission of this switch will de-iconize the window if it currently iconic.

• -inv
  Hide the monitor window, i.e. make it invisible. If this switch is not present the window will be made visible.

• -pos=<screen_xy>
  X,Y screen position for the window. The default is 300,300.

• -r=<num>
  The maximum number of lines displayed in the monitor log. The default is 128. This the number of lines retained for window scrolling purposes and does not change the size of the window, nor the number of visible rows, which is 16 on window creation. Irrespective of this value, the monitor log text is held in a buffer of 32k bytes, which may restrict the line count. 32K is also the maximum size of the disk file with only the tail of the log being retained. If you wish to retain all error output which may exceed the 32K, use the -ch switch, see example below.

• -tb
  Enables the Windows taskbar action. When enabled, an icon is displayed in the icon tray. Using -no_tb will hide the icon. The icon tray icon is enabled by default. On Unix systems this switch does nothing. The behavior of the icon can be customized via the system identifiers icontray_exec, icontray_image and icontray_tooltip.

Notes

The monitor window command input area is available for command entry when the indicator to the left is showing green. When showing another color input is prohibited.

The monitor log window displays monitor output printed during command execution, e.g. tell, list etc., and error log output when command echoing is active. By default the window is created at startup and is shown in full. It can be created iconic by the statement monitor 0 (or invisible using monitor -1)in the System Configuration File, or by the program command line option -monitor=0 or monitor=-1.

Irrespective of whether or not the monitor log window is open, printed output may also be directed to a log file named mxlog<pid>.log, where <pid> is the session process-id. This file will be located in the logs directory, or $MXTEMPDIR if the logs directory does not exist. This can be achieved at session startup by the statement monlog 1 in the System Configuration File, or by the program command line option -monlog.

The typing of Control T in any window will invoke the command monitor, thus making it visible. On Windows systems a logo is present in the icon tray to the left of the clock, and left clicking on this icon will perform the same function.

The monitor window has a menubar with several predefined buttons to perform debugging aids:

• File - When pressed, a pulldown menu is displayed with various options to start/stop the development system, iconize all windows, exit the system, open the applications window and others.

• Debug - When pressed a pulldown menu is displayed with various debugging options which can be invoked.

• Break - Interrupt Fire processing. If the debugger window is active, control is passed to it.

• Help - Invoke various help options via a pulldown menu.

Examples

Ensure the monitor window is displayed.

monitor

Display the monitor window at a screen position with a history buffer of 100 lines.

monitor -r=100,-pos=<50,50>

Direct monitor output to a user file.

open mychan,-of='/tmp/monlog.txt'
monitor -ch=mychan

See Also