Tail is a command-line program that by default outputs the last ten lines to standard output; with other command switches, particular numbers of lines can be specified and files can be monitored in real time.
Questions tagged [tail]
64 questions
89
votes
2 answers
tail: Reading an entire file, and then following
I would like a tail -f type of behavior that reads the entire file and then continues to follow it as it's written to.
SOLUTION
Based on the answer I accepted, this works: tail -f -n +1 {filename}
Why it works: The -f option continues to "follow"…
Sonny
- 1,215
- 1
- 9
- 14
64
votes
3 answers
User limit of inotify watches reached on Ubuntu 16.04
I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 and I get this warning when I start SmartGit:
IOException: User limit of inotify watches reached
Moreover I get this warning launching tail -f:
tail: inotify resources exhausted
tail: inotify cannot be used,…
Andrea
- 1,047
- 3
- 9
- 17
42
votes
7 answers
GUI for watching logs (tail and grep)
Could you recommend a GUI application with powerful log watching capabilities?
Generally it would work as tail -f in GUI, but on top of that following features would be very useful:
filtering out some lines based on (regular) expressions
coloring…
Grzegorz Oledzki
- 878
- 2
- 9
- 17
28
votes
7 answers
tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling: Too many open files
When I try to tail -f catalina.out, I get the error:
tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling: Too many open files
I tried the answer in this post:
Too many open files - how to find the culprit
lsof | awk '{ print $2; }' | sort -rn |…
gbag
- 281
- 1
- 3
- 3
27
votes
2 answers
Tail - how to quit tail and restore terminal window?
Let's say we do:
tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log
Then we see what we want to see, and then, we want to quit, so that we can navigate to other directories and so on... So, the question is:
How can we quit tail ?
I've tried to type: 'q', and…
MEM
- 10,997
- 12
- 38
- 42
21
votes
5 answers
How to view multiple files in single terminal?
Sometimes I may need to access multiple log files for troubleshooting , but I don't want to open them in different terminals.
What I want is to open them in same terminal.
Is there any way I can view tail part of the multiple log files in a same…
Raja G
- 100,643
- 105
- 254
- 328
15
votes
6 answers
Which is faster to delete first line in file... sed or tail?
In this answer (How can I remove the first line of a file with sed?) there are two ways to delete the first record in a file:
sed '1d' $file >> headerless.txt
** ---------------- OR ----------------**
tail -n +2 $file >> headerless.txt
Personally…
WinEunuuchs2Unix
- 99,709
- 34
- 237
- 401
15
votes
4 answers
What does the 'tail' command do?
I'm new to Ubuntu. I previously ran a tail -f /var/logs/syslog and get the following displayed results:
kernel: [ 2609.699995] [drm:gen6_sanitize_pm] *ERROR* Power management discrepancy: GEN6_RP_INTERRUPT_LIMITS expected 000d0000, was…
user174472
- 159
- 1
- 1
- 3
14
votes
4 answers
Tailing two log files
I have a web application that outputs to a number of log files with performance information. One log file outputs code execution times and another outputs SQL timings. I have no control over the logger or the code that produces the log files, but I…
Codemwnci
- 1,219
- 3
- 15
- 20
11
votes
2 answers
Ending tail -f after print n lines
I have the following.
A Java process writing logs on file
A shell script starting
the Java process.
I need to read the log file after start Java process to check correct starting.
I have try with tail -f but it remain append forever. I need tail…
theShadow89
- 215
- 2
- 9
7
votes
4 answers
Move only the last 8 files in a directory to another directory
I'm trying to move the last 8 files from the Documents directory to another directory, but I don't want to move them one-by-one to that specific directory. Is it possible to move them with a substitute of the tail command, but for directories…
Sandra Ross
- 777
- 3
- 10
- 20
7
votes
3 answers
Paginate with tail -f command
I am trying to tail file with pagination:
tail -f foo.txt | more
This works fine until file gets, lets say, 200 lines injected, when this happens nature of tail command is to go to end of file, at that point I lose track of trailing the log.
Is…
Dolphin
- 123
- 1
- 1
- 6
6
votes
1 answer
How to unzip only the first few lines of a zip archive?
I have a zipped text file a.zip I want to read the first 10 lines of it. Is it possible to do that without unzipping the whole file?
yukashima huksay
- 917
- 5
- 14
- 29
6
votes
1 answer
Highlighting with grep doesn't work in Xterm
I've got a problem with Xterm.
When I use the command
tail -F example.log | grep -a -i -e 'examplestring'
in Xterm the "grepped" strings aren't highlighted in red like they would be in the normal terminal.
How can I fix this? Google didn't help me…
Bannix
- 61
- 2
4
votes
1 answer
Why won't `tail -f` follow my syslog when running live?
I want to monitor /var/log/syslog for any changes in realtime (or within-a-few-seconds-of-time), but tail -f won't update with any new changes.
I'm running Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 17 XFCE live now, but this hasn't worked on live iso's of Ubuntu,…
Xen2050
- 8,588
- 4
- 32
- 51