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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 there a way to avoid this?

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3  
Use less instead of more. – choroba Nov 2 '12 at 13:29
5  
Decided to double down? askubuntu.com/questions/210960/paginate-with-tail-f-command – Snesticle Nov 2 '12 at 13:35
@Snesticle Yes I'm desperate, is it against the rules? – Dolphin Nov 2 '12 at 13:40
Are you reading from a pipe? If so your option "-f" gets ignored. – Snesticle Nov 2 '12 at 13:56
1  
@Dolphin ss64.com/bash/tail.html – Snesticle Nov 2 '12 at 14:36
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1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Use less with +F instead of tail/more:

less +F foo.txt

When you want to take a look around, hit Ctrl-c. To restart following (tailing), hit F.

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Not exactly what I had in mind but works nicely. Thank you +1 from me and if nothing closer to target accept from me. – Dolphin Nov 2 '12 at 14:32

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