...with main developer Krzysztof Zawadyl

Oct 9, 2006 13:26 GMT  ·  By

MetaMonitor is yet another unique application. It can watch the syslog's or metalog's log file and pops up the window whenever the new message comes but you can also specify the file to watch and a regular expression for parsing the log line, so you can watch other log files too. The new version of MetaMonitor is now in development and it promises to bring new and exciting features. I wanted to know more about the new release and other interesting stuff related to this project, so I've dropped an e-mail to main developer Krzysztof Zawady, and here's the interview. Enjoy!

M. Nestor, Softpedia: Please introduce yourself!

Krzysztof Z.: I am Krzysztof Zawadyl, I'm a 26 years old engineer of informatics, I started my adventure with Linux about six or seven years ago and I use it almost for everything now. I use Gentoo and KDE is my favorite desktop environment.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: I think you should tell us, especially for the ones that don't know yet, what is MetaMonitor and what it does.

Krzysztof Z.: MM is a very simple program which reads a single line of a log file. Every new line is treated as a message which is popped up in a 'bubble', so the user can immediately see that the file has changed. It can be used to watch the log files, but also (with use the DCOP mechanism) to 'listen' for new messages from the third party applications.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: MetaMonitor is the first of its kind, right? Are you afraid that someone will release sooner or later something similar? After all, a little competition doesn't hurt anyone.

Krzysztof Z.: Well, yes and no. Basically, there are a lot of log file monitors and analyzers (the KSystemLog, or KLogWatch for example), and all of them do the same thing - watch a log file. Actually, the first was 'tail -f' I suppose :-). The same thing is with the popups, there are many apps which uses them. What MM did is split both ideas into the single application. So - yes - it is one of a kind. About the second part of your question, I really would be glad if someone would release something similar to MetaMonitor. I love competition, which is the motor of all improvements, and - what is the most important - users can choose the application they like. That's the spirit of Open Source, right? :-)

M. Nestor, Softpedia: OK, so basically, we can say it's a simple Metalog/Syslog interface, but it can monitor any file that comes from a logger, like an Apache logger or any other application, right?

Krzysztof Z.: Yes, of course. As long as you can make a regular expression of a single line (define the file format), you can watch any file you like.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: What can Triggers do?

Krzysztof Z.: Triggers are the rules which user defines to analyze the log. We all know that some messages are more important, and some of them are not important at all. Thanks to triggers, user can 'tell' MetaMonitor how to treat the single message, so the specified message can change the popups look, play a sound, or even run a specified command.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: I heard you are hardly working on a new version that will have plugins. What can you tell us about this feature?

Krzysztof Z.: Yes, in the next version, MM will be a bit more functional. It will become a single instance application which will be able to run several monitors at a time. Each monitor will be one of the File Monitor, the DCOP Monitor or the Command Monitor. The last one - Command Monitor - will be quite interesting as it will be able to run some command periodically and analyze it's output. Every monitor will be a separate file (like the Karamba's themes for example) which will be able to load or unload any time. There will be some of predefined monitors, so even an inexperienced user can use them. Every monitor will have the triggers mechanism with some predefined triggers of course. So MM will be more Meta than Monitor then :-). But still - it will be a very simple application (which is on of its basic rules).

M. Nestor, Softpedia: I wanted, for some time now, a application that can monitor a webpage (HTTP and ftp), just make a copy of the page on the first submission and then check it for changes at a specific time. Will MetaMonitor do that in the near future?

Krzysztof Z.: With the Command Monitor and a little bash script as a command - yes, it will be possible! As you can see, the power of MM is not inside MM itself, but it's in the other tools it cooperates with.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: What should users expect from the future versions of MetaMonitor? Will it remain a simple interface for some log files or will it be more than that?

Krzysztof Z.: Well, I think the question is: What will KDE 4 bring to the user? I wrote MetaMonitor, because there wasn't such application yet. I know that the KDE 4 with the Plasma technology will have incredible abilities to notify the user. Maybe the MetaMonitor will no longer be needed. So, we will see. Anyway, I will try to make MetaMonitor be more 'open' to the other applications. With the DCOP (and DBus in the future), there will be many ways to communicate with other applications (check KMail for new mails for example). It is possible right now, but maybe it could be done much better - easier for the user. But basically, MM will stay a simple application. I believe that the power of Linux and other *nix OSes comes from the simplicity. The idea is to use them together - to make them twice as powerful.

M. Nestor, Softpedia: What would you like to transmit to our readers and to the Open Source Community?

Krzysztof Z.: Stay cool, use and share the Free Software! There are more of us day by day, and that's great!

M. Nestor, Softpedia : Thank you for the interview and for your time spent with me. I wish you success in life and with your project!

Krzysztof Z.: Thank you too; I hope you'll find MetaMonitor a useful tool!

One more thing (hope you don't mind): I would like to thank my girlfriend Michelle for her patience, enthusiasm and the greatest inspiration...

You can download MetaMonitor now from Softpedia.