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kumar
Asked: 2013-12-31 04:16:38 +0800 CST

tail command not updating output for debug files

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I know that tail -f /var/log/messages will be keep updating on screen as the contents of file gets updated. But when I tried the same thing with a debug file system's file it is not working , any idea?

I tried ftrace and tried this: tail -f trace it is not working ?

Note, I can see the contents actually getting by using watch -n1 cat trace.

linux

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    tail -f works on the file descriptor, not on the file name. If the file is being overwritten, or deleted and re-created, tail -f won't be able to track that.

    In gnu tail there's the option --follow=name or -F which will track the file name rather than the inode/file descriptor.

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