FORCETTY

Some programs obnoxiously buffer their output if they detect that they aren't outputing to a pty, in ways that stdbuf -iL -oL can't fix. This is particularly problematic when filtering the output of a log file where the program streaming out the logs does this buffering, because log events may be indefinitely delayed if there is little activity being logged (aws logs tail --follow is one of these).

This tiny wrapper forks the specified program controlled by a pty, and writes its output to the parent's stdout.

Handles SIGCHLD:

• Normal child exit: exits parent, propagating child's exit status.
• Child killed with signal: exits (status 0)
• Child dumped: exits (status 0)

On SIGINT, SIGTERM to parent: exits as expected.

EXAMPLE

forcetty aws logs tail /aws/lambda/foo --since 1m --follow --color off | fancy_logs_filter

BUILDING

make
sudo make install

See the top of the tiny Makefile for configuration knobs.

LICENSE

This package is placed in the public domain: the author disclaims copyright and liability to the extent allowed by law. For those jurisdictions that limit an author’s ability to disclaim copyright this package can be used under the terms of the CC0, BSD, or MIT licenses. No attribution, permission or fees are required to use this for whatever you like, commercial or otherwise, though I would urge its users to do good and not evil to the world.