NAME

       logtail2 - print log file lines that have not been read

SYNOPSIS

       logtail2 [-t] -flogfile [-ooffsetfile]

DESCRIPTION

       logtail2  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 offsetfile.  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  <crowland@psionic.com>.   This  version  of
       logtail  is a modification of Paul Slootman's re-implementation in perl.  enhanced by the Debian Logcheck
       Team <logcheck@packages.debian.org>.

       This manual was written by Oohara Yuuma <oohara@libra.interq.or.jp> and enhanced by the  Debian  Logcheck
       Team <logcheck@packages.debian.org>..

SEE ALSO

       logcheck(8)

Debian                                             28 Jul 2007                                        LOGTAIL(8)