OH! You also want the std. output. I read the shell given by toby@xxxxxxxxxx and it is also a good solution. You can pipe things to sed, awk which are the most commonly used commands for editing the std. output using pipes. That is, without using temp files. As you can see, Toby's example does not use sed, awk. It uses echo. But, he has to use a while loop. So, you can have: A 4 line shell script called runit : # runit command options cmd=$1 # In case $1 has sub directories, then get just the command name cmd=`basename $cmd` # expr="s?^?${cmd}: ?" eval `echo "$* 2>&1 | sed '$expr' " ` This script can be installed under /usr/bin . To run a command type: runit [command] [command_options] Standard output and std. errors will be displayed on the xterm with command name included. After all, what I love in Unix is that YOU CAN do these kind of things. Everything is possible. I recognize that to be able to do this 4 line script takes too much Unix experience. I am using basename to get the filename in case you run: runit /usr/local/bin/netscape & I define expr to create the argument sed expects. I use quetion marks to avoid conflicts with slashes. Life is harder on any other MOST popular operating systems...specially those that crash so often in a daily basis. GZS Larry Troxler wrote: > On Saturday 12 July 2003 22:13, toby@xxxxxxxxxx wrote: > < I mean, how would you like it if > >>you typed 'ls', only to get back: >> >>ls: slow.wav > > > ... > > Ahh, I see your point now. > > >>Create an executable shell script in your path that looks like this: >> >> >>#***** SCRIPT ***** >>function showme(){ >> while read foo >> do echo $1: $foo >> done >>} >> >>$@ | showme $1 >>#***** /SCRIPT ***** >> >>I called mine, "identify". >> >>Now, let's test it with grep: >> >>sinewave:toby:toby> identify grep foo * >>grep: Binary file DSC00326.TIF matches >>grep: Binary file QtC-0.0.2.lsm matches >>grep: adf: afsdadsfadfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdf toby adfadfadf foo >>grep: adf: print('myfoot', 'myfoot'); >>grep: adf: print('yourfoot', 'yourfoot'); >>grep: doit: while read foo >>grep: doit: do echo $1: $foo >> >>So, now stdout and stderr get prefixed with the name >>of the program. Easy, yes? >> >> >>Tobiah > > > Well, ok, maybe easy, but still ... > > I guess the answer to my original question is that, yes, people fire up a > seperate xterm for each audio app they launch :-) > > I mean, I have a hard time believing that what you're describing is common > practice. > > Thanks for your time! (really, thanks!) > > Regards > > Larry Troxler > > > > -- This Message is sent from my Red Hat 8.0 Linux server .-. .-. | Gustavo Zamorano S.