Re: Tail doesn't follow

[mharig at erols dot com]

> From: =?Windows-1252?Q?J=F6rg_Pleumann?= <joerg.pleumann@trantor.de>
> Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 12:03:56 +0200
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm having a problem with Cygwin's "tail" utility. I use it to monitor a log
> file of a program running on a Linux machine from a Win2K machine. The Linux
> machine's file system is made available via Samba. The problem is: While the
> initial output of 10 lines (or whatever I specify) is happily printed, newly
> appended lines never make it to the screen. In other words, "tail -f"
> doesn't follow. I've already tried "--follow=name", but to no avail.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Bye, Jörg
> 

I usually use "less" on log files of running processes.  Once "less"
is displaying the output, you can press Shift-f (capital 'f') to have
it follow the output.  To get it to stop following the output, type
Ctrl-c.  You can repeat this again and again.

The problem I found long ago (which might be fixed by now) is that if
I ran "less" in the same bash shell/window as the process I was
monitoring (that is, if I ran, say, a build in the background via '&')
then this would abort the process.  I was able to get around this
problem by running "less" in a separate bash shell/window from the
process I was monitoring.  This bug might have been fixed in a recent
Cygwin release, but I haven't checked it.

As far as your "tail -f" problem is concerned, I don't know the reason
for it or a quick fix, but you might try running "tail -f" in a
separate bash shell from the process you are monitoring, just as I do
with "less".  Or, you might try using "less".

Good luck!

-- 
## Mark Harig
## Email: mharig@erols.com



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