coloredstderr is a small library which uses 'LD_PRELOAD' to color stderr. It
``follows'' dups, has minimal performance overhead and can ignore certain
-binaries (requires /proc).
+binaries.
Like all solutions using 'LD_PRELOAD' it only works with dynamically linked
binaries. Statically linked binaries, for example valgrind, are not supported.
INSTALLATION
------------
+If you're using the Git version, run `autoreconf -fsi` first to generate
+`configure`.
+
./configure && make && make check
Then either install the library with `make install` or just copy it from
COLORED_STDERR_FDS=2,
export LD_PRELOAD COLORED_STDERR_FDS
+To use coloredstderr with multi-lib (multiple architectures on the same
+system, e.g. i386 and amd64), your system must support the '$LIB' variable in
+'LD_PRELOAD'. Then you can build coloredstderr for all architectures and use
+'$LIB' in 'LD_PRELOAD'. The following should work for Debian-based systems
+with this directory structure:
+
+ dir
+ `-- lib
+ |-- i386-linux-gnu
+ | `-- libcoloredstderr.so
+ `-- x86_64-linux-gnu
+ `-- libcoloredstderr.so
+
+Now set 'LD_PRELOAD'. `lib/` is included in '$LIB'!
+
+ LD_PRELOAD='/absolute/path/to/dir/$LIB/libcoloredstderr.so'
+
+The single quotes are important. '$LIB' is not evaluated by the shell, but by
+the loader (`man ld.so`). Now both i386 and amd64 binaries automatically use
+coloredstderr.
+
The following additional environment variables are available:
Comma separated list of binary names/paths which should not be tracked
(including their children). Useful for `reset` which writes to the terminal,
but fails to work if the output is colored. See below for an example.
+ Requires `/proc/self/exe`.
All environment variables starting with 'COLORED_STDERR_PRIVATE_*' are
internal variables used by the implementation and should not be set manually.
inlines the code into the program without calling any function.
- Test `test_stdio.sh` fails on FreeBSD, because FreeBSD does handle the above
correctly (no inlining), but the test is designed for GNU/Linux.
-- 'COLORED_STDERR_IGNORED_BINARIES' requires the `/proc` file system.
- Suggestions welcome.
+- 'COLORED_STDERR_IGNORED_BINARIES' requires `/proc/self/exe`. Suggestions
+ welcome.
- Output of `strace` is not always colored correctly as the output from
`coloredstderr` is traced and displayed as well. Suggestions welcome.