Follow log files in real time: tail -f


If you don't know this command by know you might be quite new to the Unix / Linux world. Tail is a classic Unix command. It can be used to show last n lines of a log file. But the command really comes to live, when adding the -f parameter. Try:

tail -f /var/log/apache/access.log.

Tail will stick to the log file and print out lines written to the log file as they are written. Very useful. Tail can even be used for multiple files at once. Just use an asterisk like:

tail -f /var/log/apache/*