🚀 go-pugleaf

Nate Eldredge <neldredge@hmc.edu> writes:

> "Vince" <vlasfargues@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
> > I suppose I'm not the only one to have the following problem:
> > 
> > I use "tail -f" to get the new entries in the syslog file. But when the file
> > is renamed  (because it's too big or too old), tail is stuck on the renamed
> > file, which is not appended anymore.


> > I've heard about "tailf" (linux) or the option "tail -fname", but there is
> > nothing like that on Solaris, HP-UX or AIX.

tail -f exists under all flavors of unices but doesn't work on renamed file.
BSD flavors have tail -F which handle this case.

> > Where can I get some source code to build my own tail that will support this
> > option or will follow and returned the entries inserted in the new syslog
> > file?

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/branches/-current/src/usr.bin/tail/

BSD tail -F can be easily simulated this way:

#!/bin/sh
trap '[ -n "$pid" ] && kill $pid' 2 3 15
file=$1 tmout=60
while sleep $tmout; do
        [ -f "$file" ] || continue
        new=`ls -i "$file" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}'`
        if [ "$old" != "$new" ]; then
                old=$new
                [ -n "$pid" ] && kill $pid
                tail -f "$file" & pid=$!
        fi
done

> Get GNU tail (from the Textutils at ftp.gnu.org) and use the
> --follow=filename option.

GNU tail -f doesn't work on renamed or removed files. try this and see:

ls >> /tmp/log
gtail -f log &
ls >> /tmp/log
(ok)
mv /tmp/log /tmp/olog
ls >> /tmp/log
(nothing)
rm /tmp/olog
ls >> /tmp/log
(nothing)

the lesson is... GNU tools aren't good everywhere :)

PS : Vince, when you crosspost, don't forget to put a followup-to.
also, don't crosspost on groups w/ different languages as you do (fr).

fu2 cua

Cyrille.
-- 
home: mailto:clefevre%no-spam@poboxes.com.invalid    | UNIX is user-friendly;
work: mailto:Cyrille.Lefevre%no-spam@edf.fr.invalid  | it's just particular
Supprimer "%no-spam" et ".invalid" pour me repondre. | about who it chooses
Remove "%no-spam" and ".invalid" to answer me back.  | to be friends with.