Two additional ways to tail a log file

I want to revisit a topic: how to tail a log file. My earlier posts discussed the use of tail and less commands to tail a log file, and multitail if you need to tail multiple files at once.

This followup article discussed two other ways to tail a log file: the use of the most command, and to tail within emacs.

The most command bills itself as a replacement for less. Like its predecessors less and more, most is a file pager program.

To install most on my Debian Etch system:

$ apt-get update && apt-get install most

To page the log file say /var/log/messages:

$ most /var/log/messages

This opens the log file, and displays the first page.

To tail the file, put most into Tail Mode by pressing the F key (capital F).

You should see the following line in the status area at the bottom of the tail window.

Most Tail Mode--  MOST keys are still active.

If a new line is appended to the log file, most will automatically reposition the file to the end and display the new line.

Note that you can scroll the file or do a search when you are in Tail Mode. For example, you can press the PageUp/PageDown, UpArrow/DownArrow keys to scroll the file. Also, you can press / to search forward or ? to search backward. However, when you press a key in Tail Mode, you break out of Tail mode in the sense that newly appended lines are not automatically displayed in the window. Yet, you can hit F again to re-enter Tail Mode, or simply use the DownArrow scroll key to scroll past the end of file to fetch the new lines.

To quit most, press the q key.

For my fellow emacs users out there, another way to tail a log file is to do it right within emacs.

You need the tail-file elisp function which is in the emacs-goodies-el package. Debian users can install this package like this:

$ apt-get update && apt-get install emacs-goodies.el

To tail a file in emacs: start emacs, hit M-x (Alt and x keys together), and type tail-file. Then, enter the filename to tail. The net result is that this will spawn an external tail -f process.

Note that you can't read the entire file under emacs using tail-file, only the tail initially and the newly appended lines portion afterwards.