msgbuf

🦀 A standalone message buffer application.

This tool reads text from the standard input (stdin) stream and divides it into chunks, called "messages". Then, for each message, a notifier command is invoked on a separate thread.

Installation

Pre-built binaries are available. You can download the latest version with:

curl -fLo msgbuf "https://github.com/dmotte/msgbuf/releases/latest/download/msgbuf-$(uname -m)-unknown-linux-gnu"
chmod +x msgbuf

Usage

As a sample notifier command we can use cURL to send the text to a Telegram user (as a bot). Example:

tail -f /var/log/my-log-file | ./msgbuf -- curl -sSXPOST "https://api.telegram.org/bot.../sendMessage" -dchat_id=... --data-urlencode text@- --fail-with-body -w'\n'

This is a simple graphical representation of what happens when we run the shell line above:

graph LR
    tail(fa:fa-gear tail -f fa:fa-scroll)
    reader(fa:fa-gear reader)
    invoker(fa:fa-gear invoker)
    curl(fa:fa-gear curl fa:fa-paper-plane)

    tail --> reader

    subgraph fa:fa-gear msgbuf
        reader -- "channel" --> invoker

        invoker -- "put" --> msg
        msg -- "get" --> invoker
    end

    invoker --> curl

Note: for more information on how to use this tool, you can also refer to the help message (./msgbuf --help).