[plug] tailing misbehaving log files

[Matthew Lambie]

On Tue, 2005-06-07 at 12:16 +0800, Ryan wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> I'm playing around with a GroupWise server trying to tail some of its
> log files.
> 
> Unfortunately, the log files end with the line:
> 
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> 
> .. and all updates are inserted BEFORE this line.
> 
> Tailing such a file results in all kinds of garbled formats that make it
> mostly useless to read.
> 
> Another option is using watch to tail 50 odd lines etc, but this also
> has issues with screen updates.  The screen is not cleared completely
> between updates and after a while, the text becomes impossible to read.
> ie: long lines that are replaced with short lines end up with all the
> trailing text still visible on the end of the line.

Could you combine watch with clear? Maybe:
watch -n1 "tail /var/log/groupwise.log && clear"

If you have the right tail parameters already then the clear should wipe
the display every second.
-- 

Thanks,

Matthew Lambie
Technical Director

THE FRONTIER GROUP, PTY. LTD.
Suite 17/44 Kings Park Road
West Perth, WA  6005
Australia

w: http://thefrontiergroup.com.au
e: mlambie at thefrontiergroup.com.au
f: +61 (08) 6263 4444
m: +61 408 866 997