LOGTAIL(8)logtail2 manual LOGTAIL(8)NAMElogtail2 - print log file lines that have not been read
SYNOPSISlogtail2 [-t] -flogfile [-ooffsetfile]
DESCRIPTIONlogtail2 reads a specified file (usually a log file) and writes to the
standard output that part of it which has not been read by previous
runs of logtail2. It prints the appropriate number of bytes from the
end of logfile, assuming that all changes that are made to it are to
add new characters to it.
logfile must be a plain file. A symlink is not allowed.
logtail2 stores the information about how much of it has already been
read in a separate file called offsetfile. offsetfile can be omitted.
If omitted, the file named logfile.offset in the same directory which
contains logfile is used by default.
If offsetfile is not empty, the inode of logfile is checked. If the
inode is changed, logtail2 uses the heuristics stored in
/usr/share/logtail/detectrotate/ to find a file that might be the
rotated logfile and prints it starting with the stored offset. It then
proceeds to simply print the entire new file and generates a new off‐
setfile. If the inode is not changed but logfile is shorter than it
was at the last run of logtail2, it writes a warning message to the
standard output.
OPTIONS-f logfile to be read after offset
-o offsetfile stores offset of previous run
-t test mode - do not change offset in offsetfile
RETURN VALUES
0 successful
65 cannot get the size of logfile
66 general file or directory access issue
73 cannot write offsetfile
AUTHOR
The original logtail was written in C by Craig H. Rowland <crow‐
land@psionic.com>. This version of logtail is a modification of Paul
Slootman's re-implementation in perl. enhanced by the Debian Logcheck
Team <logcheck-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>.
This manual was written by Oohara Yuuma <oohara@libra.interq.or.jp> and
enhanced by the Debian Logcheck Team
<logcheck-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>..
SEE ALSOlogcheck(8)Debian 28 Jul 2007 LOGTAIL(8)
