MULTITAIL(1)

📦
version 3.5.2 · 2 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 MULTITAIL(1) — ok so, ur new fave manual page 💖

User Contributed Perl Documentation energy, but make it ✨slay✨. This is multiTail.pl, the little script that reads a whole crowd of log files at once, and yup — the log files can be written round. 🌀

🌸 NAME 🌸

multiTail.pl — bestie, it reads multiple log files at the same time. And the log files can be written round. That's the whole vibe. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

multiTail.pl [-a] [-d delay] [-p begin|end]
        [--print] [-t] [-o outFile [-m max] [-P]
         [[-n noFiles] | [-s [-c compressprog]] ]
        ]
        [-C color=pattern [-C color=pattern ...]]
        [-g expression] files...

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

okay so here's the whole menu, no skips, every single one:

  • -a, --addName — drops the filename at the start of every line in the output, so u always know which file said the thing. 🏷️
  • -d, --delay — how many secs to wait between checking the files. default is 5 sec. ⏳
  • -p, --position — read from begin or end of the file. default = begin. 🫧
  • --print — prints the config it read from the config file or the command line, and then stops. literally just shows u the receipts and dips. 💅
  • -t, --withTime — puts the current time and date in the output. ⏰
  • -o, --out — write the output to a file. 📝
  • -m, --maxFilelen — the maximal len of the file written round. default = 1e6. 📏
  • -n, --noOfOldFiles — how many old files to store. 🗂️
  • -P, --withPID — write the pid to the log file. default is not. 🔢
  • -H, --withHostname — write the hostname to the log file. default is not. 🖥️
  • -l, --maxlines — maximal number of lines to read per --delay in one chunk from a log file. default = 1000. setting this value to 0 means to read all lines immediately. no cap, literally all of them. 😳
  • -s, --saveLogs — save log files with date and time instead of deleting the old ones (with [-noOfOldFiles]). so u keep the memories, not toss them. 🥹
  • -c, --compressWith — compress saved log files. e.g. with -c 'gzip -9'. squeeze it down, icon behavior. 🗜️
  • -C, --color — use color for a line if the specified pattern matches. supported colors are: 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'magenta', 'cyan'. this option can be used multiple times. example:
--color red=ERROR
  • -g, --grep — grep for lines with the specified expression. example:
--grep 'ERROR|WARNING'
  • -V — print version(s). 👑
heads up bestie: -C and -g can be stacked, so go off 💅

Copyright (c) 2001-2022 by Heinz-Josef Claes (see README). Published under the GNU General Public License or any later version. Respect the original queen/king fr fr. 🫶

and that's the whole page!! ✨ this was perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-05-23 — thanks for reading my little MULTITAIL(1) moment, ily, go tail those logs 🦋💖

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