48
18
This must've been done before: I want to keep a log file open in terminal so I can monitor updates to it as they occur. My searches are coming up with everything but this situation... I must be missing some terminology or something key, because people do this all the time inside of other programs (NetBeans, or rails server, for example).
wulftone
Posted 2011-05-20T19:19:09.403
Reputation: 823
84
Try with:
tail -f your.log
where -f stands for follow.
cYrus
Posted 2011-05-20T19:19:09.403
Reputation: 18 102
As you may need syntax highlight, multitail is handy i.e.
multitail -f your.log ref. http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/8419/17671
Or even better is grc i.e. grc tail -f your.log
ref. http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/21962/17671
10
Another way:
watch tail -n20 your.log
OK, kind of a silly use of watch - but you might find the watch command useful for other things.
Robin Green
Posted 2011-05-20T19:19:09.403
Reputation: 1 107
5The watch option is better for files that are going to be renamed/removed and recreated (either by normal operation or by something like logrotate) during the time you are watching, otherwise tail -f is more efficient. – David Spillett – 2011-05-20T20:07:57.633
6@David: tail -F handles that. – user1686 – 2011-05-21T10:11:04.143
@grawity: Thanks, you learn something new every day! – David Spillett – 2011-05-21T11:25:22.463
3
An alternative to @cYrus's answer is:
less +F file.log
The benefit is that less can also truncate long lines for you with the -S flag, preventing them from wrapping around the terminal screen while allowing you to scroll left/right. Instead of piping tail -f file.log through cut or something similar, you can just:
less -S +F file.log
Severyn Kozak
Posted 2011-05-20T19:19:09.403
Reputation: 135
4Ah, I've found it.
tail -f myfile.log. That does it nicely. I love linux. – wulftone – 2011-05-20T19:23:51.057