1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
|
.\" $Id: xtail.1,v 2.2 1996/06/25 00:31:15 chip Exp $
.TH XTAIL 1
.SH NAME
xtail - Watch the growth of files.
.SH SYNTAX
.B xtail
entry ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I 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.
.P
If an
.I entry
given on the command line is a directory, all files in that directory
will be monitored, including those created after the
.I xtail
invocation. If an
.I entry
given on the command line doesn't exist,
.I 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.
.P
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
.IR xtail .
.SH SEE ALSO
tail(1)
.SH NOTES
.I 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,
.I xtail
will treat it as a nonexistent entry and happily wait for its creation.
.P
My favorite use is "xtail /usr/spool/uucp/.Log/*".
.SH AUTHOR
Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com>
|
