xpdfWatch 0.4.1
===============

Currently xpdf does not have an option "watch file" to reload the
document automatically. xpdfWatch monitors running xpdf programs and
force them to reload the shown document if the corresponding file has
been updated.

xpdfWatch is free software released under the GNU General Public
License V3 or later. For details read COPYING.

xpdfWatch (C) 2008 Ralf Hoffmann

Requirements
============

 - xpdf
 - Python 2.x
   python 2.4 is known to work, python 2.3 should be enough and
   older version may or may not work.
 - Linux kernel 2.x
   xpdfWatch currently use the /proc filesystem available in linux kernels
   for getting information about running xpdf programs. Other Un*x kernels
   providing a similar interface may also work. That may be changed later
   if there is any need.
 - lsof 
   version 4.76 is known to work
 - xwininfo
   should be available in any recent X installation
 - xse 2.1
   also available at the xpdfWatch homepage

Installation
============

No special steps are required to install xpdfWatch. You may copy the
file xpdfWatch.py into to your preferred bin directory
(/usr/local/bin, $HOME/bin, ...).

Running
=======

xpdfWatch support two modes:

1.Force xpdf programs showing a specific document to reload it:

  # xpdfWatch.py -f document.pdf

  That command may be used for example in a Makefile which
  creates the document.

2.Checking all running xpdf programs in daemon mode:

  # xpdfWatch.py &

  In this mode xpdfWatch checks every second all documents opened by
  running xpdf programs whether they have been changed. If it detects
  such a change it will send a reload command with "xse" to the
  corresponding window.

Problems
========

If xpdfWatch does not work as expected you can try the debug mode:

  # xpdfWatch.py -d

In this mode xpdfWatch will output information which might help
finding problems.

Contact
=======

xpdfWatch has been written by Ralf Hoffmann. My email address is
ralf@boomerangsworld.de and you can find the homepage of this program
at http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/tools/xpdfwatch

Have fun!
