control/log connections don't show history

[gitwart]

When opening up a telnet connection to the log/control ports, it would be very useful if the last n lines of output were echoed to the terminal. This is especially useful for softIOCs that present a menu to the user.

I have a patch that adds rudimentary support for this feature. I'll create a pull request as soon as I figure out how.

[ralphlange]

I like the idea - that was one of the things missing when moving from the former screen based solution.
I'm a bit snowed in (not literally), but will try to find some time next week to have a look at #20.
Maybe add a configuration option, and do the necessary changes in the doc and CI setups.

Do you want me to push to your PR? (It's your master branch, so I am a bit reluctant.)
Else I would take it meta and issue a PR against your master.

[gitwart]

You're welcome to push to the PR. My fork only exists for this PR. I may also be adding a couple of minor changes later today, such as: Add a command line option to set the size of the log buffer, obey the stamplog setting for buffered log messages.

[ralphlange]

Cool. The first of your items was also on my list... What about using -H/--history=<n> ?
I would be conservative and leave the feature off by default; use 25 for -H without argument.

[gitwart]

-H already appears to be used for holdoff:
{"holdoff", required_argument, 0, 'H'},
How about '-b n/--logbuffersize=n'? I would prefer that the argument is required (eg -b 25 is allowed, but '-b' with no value is not)

[ralphlange]

Hm. Well... -H was actually never documented and never intended to be used. (There are more of those cases: the long_options structure needs something as a short option.)
I find -H/--history more obvious. Requiring the argument is fine.

[gitwart]

Got it. I'll repurpose -H for history, and change the short option for --holdoff to -O.

[ralphlange]

Perfect.
Re: "gitwart" - I smile whenever I read it. German background?