Questions tagged [tail]
Unix command to view the end of a file
138
questions
2
votes
1
answer
46
views
Execute self-extracting bash script (with binary data appended) w/o saving it first
I have a self-extracting bash script (binary data appended to the end) like this:
#!/bin/bash
export TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
ARCHIVE_START_LINE=$(...) # <omitted>
# extracting data archive into a ...
- 121
2
votes
1
answer
62
views
tail -f does not follow files on WSL
I have :
F:\xampp-htdocs>wsl --list
Windows Subsystem für Linux-Distributionen:
Ubuntu-22.04 (Standard)
I cd into my logfiles on Window 11:
/mnt/d/xampp-2024-15-01/apache/logs$
there i do
tail -f ...
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3
votes
3
answers
1k
views
tail from a specific starting word
I'm trying to get the last lines of a text file starting with the word 'cold'. I don't know which line the first occurrence of the word will be but I want it and every line after it to print. I've ...
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12
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Stop scrolling to the bottom automatically in PuTTY
I am using tail -f to monitor a file via PuTTY. But each time new content arrives then it automatically scrolls to the bottom and so I can't read the text.
Is there a way to make it stop that ...
- 483
22
votes
9
answers
22k
views
Windows XP equivalent of "tail -f"?
Is there way have windows XP show me updates to a log file as they happen? I'm thinking of something similar to tail -f <file path> in the linux realm.
197
votes
14
answers
211k
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Is it possible to `tail -f` the output of `dmesg`?
I want to do something like
dmesg | tail -f
but it doesn't work:
I use Mac OS X v10.6.7 (Snow Leopard). By doing that, tail will exit, instead of monitoring the output.
I wonder if there is a ...
- 215
0
votes
1
answer
129
views
How to output contents of rotating log files dynamically to stdout?
I want to output the contents of a number of rotating log files, let's say file.log.1 and file.log to stdout for continued processing.
For a single log file I could have used tail -F file.log, but ...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
3k
views
tail -f updates slowly
I'm not sure why, but on my Macbook Pro running lion I get slow updates when I issue "tail -f" on a log file that is being written to. I used to use this command all the time at my last company but ...
- 1
2
votes
2
answers
476
views
Is it possible to tail both file and journalctl using the same console?
I am looking for a solution for tailing not only multiple files in parallel but also the journalctl.
Multitail seems to do a pretty good job but I don't know a way to make it work with journalctl.
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1
vote
1
answer
127
views
stopping ssh process that is sent to background without corrupting stdout
My script aims to extract a text log file using tail -f and a wireshark trace using tshark. But I don't know if these are the best options for my goal.
My script has to ssh into a machine (which I ...
- 74.3k
24
votes
2
answers
29k
views
tail/head all line except X last/first Lines
for example i have this file :
cat myfile
1
2
3
4
5
i want to print all lines except first 2 line . output should be like this :
tail -n $(( $(wc -l myfile | awk '{print $1}') - 2 )) myfile
3
4
5
...
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26
votes
3
answers
13k
views
tail -f not tracking file changes
I was recently looking into using tail -f to monitor some text files like so: tail -f /var/sometext.
However, when I did some testing, it doesn't seem to work. What I did was I created a new file ...
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0
votes
1
answer
727
views
What are the command line parameters (options) for Microsoft's CMTRACE tool?
The CMTRACE tool is included in Microsoft's System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Toolkit.
It's a reasonably good tail tool. One of its downsides, however, is that it can take a very long time ...
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2
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Modify 2>&1 so that output goes to a specific file and any errors or other output goes to a log file I can monitor?
I'm reading this post and I don't fully follow the answer.
I wondered if I could modify this, what's it called, command redirect?
What I would like:
Don't hang, use ampersand & to move on to the ...
- 1,221
87
votes
22
answers
150k
views
Monitoring a file until a string is found
I am using tail -f to monitor a log file that is being actively written to. When a certain string is written to the log file, I want to quit the monitoring, and continue with the rest of my script.
...
- 101
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Filter tail command through multiple grep commands to separate files
What I am trying to do is filter the output of one log file into separated log files based on a grep filter.
tail -f test.log | tee >(grep "Error" > error.log) >(grep "Warning"" >
warning.log)
...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
581
views
Unblock "less" after follow mode / scrolling past end of buffer
I'm using less to capture the output of a live program. Using F activates follow mode, showing me real-time output. However, after entering follow mode (or, more generally, scrolling past the buffered ...
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1
vote
5
answers
4k
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How to use tail.exe : Windows 2003 Resource kit tool
Tail.exe from Windows 2003 Resource kit link to download page
I tried "option -f filename.xyz" - this doesnot seem to update.
In my .net app, log file is updated using this code :
FileStream ...
- 416
3
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How to display/monitor the tail of a growing CSV file in tabular format?
I am looking for a way to display an open, "live" CSV file under Windows 7. For example, I have a proprietary program running that is generating log data in CSV format. I'd like to keep an eye on what ...
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86
votes
6
answers
85k
views
Opposite of tail: all lines except the last n lines
How can I discard the last n lines of a file with a unix command line filter?
That would be sort of the opposite of tail: tail discards the first n lines but pipes the rest through, but I want the ...
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1
vote
2
answers
720
views
Tail -f is not showing the update of the file when edited form editor
I have opened a file using tail -f <filename, and tried to append some texts in the same file from another tab using vim, the updated content is not showing. But if I append some texts using echo ...
- 206
0
votes
1
answer
178
views
Find files from different directories with inclusion and exclusion of some
I want to find files from three different folders with certain files included & excluded.
Folder 1:
Path: /var/www/app/var/log/
Exclude only: file1.log & file2.log
Folder 2:
Path: /var/log/...
- 74.3k
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
tail a file without wrapping the lines on a mac
I want to tail -f a file that may contain very long lines. I would also like to see one line per screen line and scroll to the side if necessary, much like Vim's zL and zH, so no line wrapping,
Is ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
673
views
Mac terminal : terminate tail output
How can I terminate the tail log output on the mac terminal and come back to the prompt?
I have tried using command+z|x|c|q and control+z|x|c|q but it doesn't work.
With control, I get the below ...
- 1
19
votes
4
answers
13k
views
appending timestamp to tail -f results
I would like to have a timestamp printed in front of every line that comes out of a "tail -f outputfile", so that I know when is each line printed in. Something like:
[...]
20110617_070222:results ...
0
votes
1
answer
97
views
Tail log and output top processes upon encountering string fails
I am running the following command to tail a log file and output top processes to a file upon encountering a given string:
tail -f mylogfile.log | awk '
/server on fire/ { system("...
- 101
6
votes
5
answers
26k
views
tail -v a file while excluding a list of words
I'd like to tail a log file that's continuously being written to but would like to exclude various entries that are 'common' so I only see errors, etc. as they are thrown. I can pipe to grep -v "...
- 101
62
votes
6
answers
10k
views
Alternative for "tail -f" that follows filename
I have some logs being generated using a timed rotating file logger. This logs to a file called tool.log, and at midnight, moves this to tool.log.<date> and starts a new tool.log.
I have a tail ...
2
votes
0
answers
52
views
Realtime filtering of a capture in a different process
Posted this on network engineering earlier: https://networkengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/67433/realtime-filtering-of-a-recording-in-a-different-process
I have a network recording setup ...
225
votes
4
answers
56k
views
Using watch with pipes
I'd like to run this command:
watch -n 1 tail -n 200 log/site_dev.log | grep Doctrine
But it does not run, because "I think" that the grep tries to run on the watch instead of the tail...
Is there ...
- 2,788
0
votes
1
answer
2k
views
tail -n1 on latest non-empty line
I wanted to achieve something similar to this
grep -v '^$' <myfile-with-blank-lines-at-the-end> | tail -n 1
Basically, I have a file with a unique number, followed by a comma
and I want to ...
- 74.3k
4
votes
1
answer
23k
views
Combining find grep and tail
I am trying to find all files that start with a certain name, then go through each file to find lines that contains a string, then only print out the last line of each file that contain the string. ...
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0
votes
1
answer
70
views
Command Line Number Line Not In Sync
I'm playing around with the command line. For some reason when I try to grab lines 439 - 445 the output I am getting is lines 375 - 381 instead. I use the tail command to jump to line 439 then use the ...
- 454k
0
votes
1
answer
321
views
Linux head/tail commands' man page does not show the '-LINES' argument
I have just read in a book that the command head -LINES displays the first LINES lines of a file. However, head's man page does not seem to reveal this is a legit argument. I'd like to know what I am ...
- 454k
0
votes
1
answer
76
views
How to write each new mail to a separate file using tail -f?
I am monitoring the mail file for new emails. The goal is to create a new file for each new email that reaches localhost.
This is what I have so far.
current="$(date +"%Y_%m_%d_%I_%M_%p").txt"
tail ...
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0
votes
1
answer
42
views
Perform a command when a specific text occurs in a log file
Is there any way to achieve something like this?
Whenever some specific word (or combination of them) occurs in log file, I want to perform specific action. For example: whenever there occurs a word "...
- 514
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Tail -f last modified file in folder
I'm trying to use tail -f to follow a log in file in a specified folder. I can do this with the simple command tail -f [path to file] but is there a way i can have a command that runs and tracks the ...
1
vote
1
answer
454
views
Why does `tail -f /var/audit/current | praudit` just print 5 lines and exit immediately?
I want to follow my audit log live so I can watch for events, and pipe it through praudit to make it human readable. All commands below are run as root.
When I run tail -f /var/audit/current | ...
CommunityBot
- 1
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why isn't `tail -f … | grep -q …` quitting when it finds a match?
I'm doing a pretty standard tail + grep:
tail -f some_log_file.txt | grep -q known-string
If I run the command without the -q:
tail -f some_log_file.txt | grep known-string
I see output:
[Tue Feb ...
CommunityBot
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
640
views
tail -f over network with Putty
I want to see log files on a remote Linux machine on my network without having to manually ssh, cd to directory and tail -f the log file. I am using Windows and need to do this with Putty. Is there a ...
- 919
2
votes
1
answer
756
views
Insert blank lines when using 'tail -f' in cmder
I recently switched from Cygwin to cmder mostly due to it's awesome interface and all that cool pre-configured stuff. ( http://bliker.github.io/cmder/ )
I am using tail -f very often and when I am ...
- 294
24
votes
4
answers
19k
views
Using 'head' or 'tail' on HUGE text file - 19 GB
I have a problem with viewing chunks of a very large text file. This file, approximately 19 GB, is obviously too big to view by any traditional means.
I have tried head 1 and tail 1 (head -n 1 ...
- 295
0
votes
1
answer
88
views
Strip off previous lines in tail or less
I'm using tail -f or less +F to observe a changing log-file. I know from a certain point the lines I'm looking for are going to appear.
So all that garbage before that point I don't require and would ...
- 677
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
how to tail into the last file on a remote server via ssh
background
I always tail logs (both error and info).. which requires the following manual steps
1. ssh into a server
2. cd into the logs directory
3. identify the last file that is either error or ...
- 1,274
0
votes
1
answer
181
views
How to remain in session after exiting tailf command from remote script
Have PowerShell script from which I am executing the following command: putty.exe -ssh user@srv -pw password -m Execute_Command_File -t
During the script, tailf /dir/log/ command is written into ...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
pipe from ssh to windows "ssh server 'tail err.log' | tool.exe"
I want to live monitor a logfile generated on a remote linux host with a windows tool.
I'm looking for something like:
$> ssh remoteserver 'tail -F /var/log/err.log' | tool.exe
But on Windows. ...
6
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Is there anyway to `cat` two remote `tail -f` streams via SSH?
I wanted to combine two continuous text streams generated by tail -f into one and watch them in the same screen. Is it possible? Both text streams are line-oriented (e.g. logs), if that helps.
...
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Tail -f on newly-created files with unknown names
I have a program that for each run generates a new log file. To watch what's going on, I'd like to tail -f the log - only problem is that I don't actually know the file name in advance.
So, is there ...
- 2,303
1
vote
2
answers
871
views
How to tail file from url without downloading the entire file?
I've got a system which needs to get the latest 200 lines from a very large public file every day. The file is exposed over an url. Currently I run a simple script which does a wget and then tails the ...
- 10k
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How do I tail a block device in Linux?
I am trying to get just the last 1024 bytes of /dev/sda2. When I do sudo tail -c 1024 /dev/sda2 | hd, the prompt just hangs until I hit Ctrl-C. However, when I tail -c 1024 ddfilecopyofsda2 | hd, I ...
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