diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | THANKS | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/coreutils.texi | 6 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/tail.c | 8 |
3 files changed, 7 insertions, 8 deletions
@@ -543,6 +543,7 @@ Solar Designer solar@owl.openwall.com Stanislav Ievlev inger@altlinux.ru Stavros Passas stabat@ics.forth.gr Stéphane Chazelas Stephane_CHAZELAS@yahoo.fr +Stéphane Raimbault stephane.raimbault@makina-corpus.com Stephen Depooter sbdep@myrealbox.com Stephen Eglen eglen@pcg.wustl.edu Stephen Gildea gildea@stop.mail-abuse.org diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi index e097c257d..5e43b1705 100644 --- a/doc/coreutils.texi +++ b/doc/coreutils.texi @@ -2770,8 +2770,10 @@ If you'd like to continue to track the end of a growing file even after it has been unlinked, use @option{--follow=descriptor}. This is the default behavior, but it is not useful if you're tracking a log file that may be rotated (removed or renamed, then reopened). In that case, use -@option{--follow=name} to track the named file by reopening it periodically -to see if it has been removed and recreated by some other program. +@option{--follow=name} to track the named file, perhaps by reopening it +periodically to see if it has been removed and recreated by some other program. +Note that the inotify-based implementation handles this case without +the need for any periodic reopening. No matter which method you use, if the tracked file is determined to have shrunk, @command{tail} prints a message saying the file has been truncated diff --git a/src/tail.c b/src/tail.c index 28a0e26a9..8195deedf 100644 --- a/src/tail.c +++ b/src/tail.c @@ -316,14 +316,10 @@ GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.\n\ fputs (_("\ With --follow (-f), tail defaults to following the file descriptor, which\n\ means that even if a tail'ed file is renamed, tail will continue to track\n\ -its end. \ -"), stdout); - fputs (_("\ -This default behavior is not desirable when you really want to\n\ +its end. This default behavior is not desirable when you really want to\n\ track the actual name of the file, not the file descriptor (e.g., log\n\ rotation). Use --follow=name in that case. That causes tail to track the\n\ -named file by reopening it periodically to see if it has been removed and\n\ -recreated by some other program.\n\ +named file in a way that accommodates renaming, removal and creation.\n\ "), stdout); emit_ancillary_info (); } |