[plug] tail -f /var/log/messages

[Peter Wright]

On Tue, May 30, 2000 at 09:18:34AM +0800, Earnshaw, Mike wrote:
> List,
> 
> I am trying to monitor the /var/log/messages file in a quick smart
> fashion (I hesitate to use the term real time), I normally use
> 
> tail -f /var/log/messages
> 
> but there seems to be some delay before the screen reflects what has
> happened in the log. Is there a way to increase the "polling speed" of
> this command. 'Man tail' on my machine did not indicate so.

I'd guess that'd just be the limitations of the tail command.

If you'd like closer to "real time" logging, have a look through the
syslogd man page - you can have it output messages in a number of
funky ways (other than just to the /var/log/messages file), including
outputting to a named pipe.

Have a look through the /etc/syslog.conf too.... I just found out in
mine that console messages are output to the named pipe /dev/xconsole,
which can be used by the xconsole command (in Xwindows) thusly:

# xconsole -file /dev/xconsole

(as root)

You can of course configure syslogd to output directly to the Linux
console if you wish, though that can be incredibly annoying if you're
actually using the console to do work.

> Thanks,
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Earnshaw       | "It don't mean a thing if     | e-mail in header

Hope that gives you enough of a pointer. :]

Pete.
-- 
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

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