tailf

TAILF(1)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                  TAILF(1)

NAME

       tailf - follow the growth of a log file

SYNOPSIS

       tailf file

DESCRIPTION

       tailf  will print out the last 10 lines of a file and then wait for the
       file to grow.  It is similar to tail -f but does not  access  the  file
       when  it  is not growing.  This has the side effect of not updating the
       access time for the file, so a filesystem flush does not occur periodi-
       cally when no log activity is happening.

       tailf  is  extremely  useful  for monitoring log files on a laptop when
       logging is infrequent and the user desires that the hard disk spin down
       to conserve battery life.

BUGS

       An  option  could  be provided to print out the last n lines instead of
       the last 10.

AUTHOR

       This program was written by Rik Faith (faith@acm.org) and may be freely
       distributed  under  the  terms  of the X11/MIT License.  There is ABSO-
       LUTELY NO WARRANTY for this program.

SEE ALSO

       tail(1), less(1)



                               13 February 2003                       TAILF(1)