option like TAIL to keep track of WHOLE file

Question

tail -f will update the file once new data is inserted , but if the whole file is being rewritten it will give an error .

is there any other option to keep reloading the whole file ?

Thank you

Cédric Julien · Answer 1 · 2012-11-08T08:41:06.343

5

man tail gives :

tail -F or tail --follow=name --retry to keep tail watching file even if all the file is rewritten.

edited Nov 08 '12 at 08:41

answered Nov 08 '12 at 08:30

Cédric Julien

2,797

no it gives 'tail: 1.dat: file truncated' and does not reload the new content – TeAmEr Nov 08 '12 at 08:36
@RonanDejhero : if you didn't use the -F option, add the --retry to the --follow=name – Cédric Julien Nov 08 '12 at 08:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 08:35

Have a look at multitail. The following output was produced through the command sudo multitail --follow-all -i /vor/log/syslog. It shows the end of one file, a notice that the file got truncated and the beginning of the new syslog entry:

Nov  8 09:06:36 rfc1178 anacron[22633]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.daily'11-08
tail: �~@~^/var/log/syslog�~@~\ wurde ersetzt;  folge Ende der neuen Datei
----------- file got truncated /var/log/syslog 2012/11/08 09:08:02-----------
Nov  8 09:08:02 rfc1178 rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" …

option like TAIL to keep track of WHOLE file

2 Answers2