# spacer

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`spacer` is a simple CLI tool to insert spacers when command output stops.

If you're the type of person that habitually presses enter a few times in your
log tail to know where the last request ended and the new one begins, this tool
is for you!

![](/images/spacer.gif)

## Installation

With Homebrew:

```bash
brew install spacer
```

Direct from Cargo:

```bash
cargo install spacer
```

## Usage

By default, `spacer` outputs a spacer after 1 second with no output. You can
change this with the `--after` flag.

```bash
tail -f some.log | spacer --after 5
```

`--after` accepts a number of seconds, and allows floating point numbers for
extra precision.

## STDOUT and STDERR

Some commands output most of their information on STDERR, not STDOUT. `spacer`
only monitors STDOUT, so if you find a situation where `spacer` doesn't seem
to be working it could be that the program you're piping from is using STDERR.

To "fix" that, redirect STDERR to STDOUT by using `2>&1` in your command:

```bash
my-command 2>&1 | spacer
```