NAME¶
xtail - Watch the growth of files.
SYNTAX¶
xtail entry ...
DESCRIPTION¶
Xtail monitors one or more files, and displays all data written to a file
since command invocation. It is very useful for monitoring multiple logfiles
simultaneously.
If an
entry given on the command line is a directory, all files in that
directory will be monitored, including those created after the
xtail
invocation. If an
entry given on the command line doesn't exist,
xtail will watch for it and monitor it once created. When switching
files in the display, a banner showing the pathname of the file is printed.
An interrupt character (usually CTRL/C or DEL) will display a list of the most
recently modified files being watched. Send a quit signal (usually
CTRL/backslash) to stop
xtail.
SEE ALSO¶
tail(1)
NOTES¶
Xtail may be easily confused. For example, if you ask it to monitor a
file multiple times, it probably will. If you misspell a filename,
xtail will treat it as a nonexistent entry and happily wait for its
creation.
My favorite use is "xtail /usr/spool/uucp/.Log/*".
AUTHOR¶
Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com>