rsstail

Show the feed of a given URL and wait for new entries appearing at the bottom

$ rsstail -u [url]

$ rsstail -r -u [url]

$ rsstail -pl -u [url]

$ rsstail -u [url] -i [interval_in_seconds]

$ rsstail -1 -u [url]

rsstail [options] ...

-u
    Update interval in seconds. Default is 60 seconds.

-l
    Follow links to their final URL. Useful when using shortened URLs in feeds.

-n
    Number of items to display initially. Defaults to all items if not specified.

-i
    Ignore SSL certificate errors. Useful for feeds with self-signed certificates.

-v
    Verbose output. Shows more information about the process.

-w
    Program to run on each new feed item (e.g., a notification script).

-x
    Number of lines from the description to show. Defaults to showing the full description.

-g
    Group items from the same URL together

-s
    Statefile to store last item ID, needed for correct working for some feeds


    URL of the RSS or Atom feed to monitor.

rsstail is a command-line utility that monitors and displays new entries from RSS or Atom feeds in real-time, similar to how tail monitors log files. It fetches the specified feed(s) at regular intervals and prints any new items to the standard output. This allows users to easily track updates from various websites, blogs, or news sources directly from the terminal.
rsstail is useful for keeping up-to-date with frequently changing information without constantly checking websites in a browser. It parses the feed content and presents the titles and, optionally, descriptions of the new items, often in chronological order. Configuration options allow customization of the polling interval, the output format, and which fields of the feed entry are displayed. It uses curl or wget to fetch the feed, and thus those tools must be installed for it to work.
It's typically used in scripts, terminals, or even integrated into desktop notification systems. This helps automate monitoring of website changes and provides quick access to new content.

rsstail relies on the accuracy and availability of the specified RSS/Atom feeds. If a feed is unavailable or malformed, rsstail might produce errors or unexpected output. Correct functioning depends on having curl or wget installed. Some feeds are incompatible and need the -s option to define a statefile.

The output format can be customized by piping the output of rsstail to other command-line tools like sed, awk, or grep. This allows users to filter and format the feed entries according to their specific needs. The -w option also allows to execute a formatting and notification script for each new item.

rsstail may encounter errors when fetching or parsing feeds. It's important to handle these errors gracefully, for example, by logging them or by implementing retry mechanisms. The -v option can be helpful for debugging issues.

rsstail has been developed as a command-line tool for monitoring RSS and Atom feeds in real time. It was designed to mimic the functionality of tail for log files but for web feeds. The development has likely involved improvements in feed parsing, handling various feed formats, and adding options to customize the output and behaviour of the tool. It's widely used by system administrators, developers, and users who need to track updates from websites or blogs without having to manually check them frequently.

tail(1), curl(1), wget(1)