VNL-TAIL(1)

📦
version 1.42 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

👑 vnl-tail — the manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is vnl-tail(1), from the vnlog crew, and it's about to be your new fave. it tails a log file. but — and this is the iconic part — it keeps the legend. 🌸

✨ NAME ✨

vnl-tail — tail a log file, preserving the legend 🦋

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

 $ read_temperature | tee temp.vnl
 # temperature
 29.5
 30.4
 28.3
 22.1
 ... continually produces data

 ... at the same time, in another terminal
 $ vnl-tail -f temp.vnl
 # temperature
 28.3
 22.1
 ... outputs data as it comes in

like. it just keeps going. it never stops. main character energy fr fr. 💅

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

 Usage: vnl-tail [options] logfile logfile logfile ... < logfile

so what's the vibe? this tool runs "tail" on the vnlog files you hand it, in various ways. vnl-tail is a wrapper around the GNU coreutils "tail" tool. and because it's a wrapper, most of the commandline options and behaviors of "tail" are right there for you — go read the tail(1) manpage for the details, iykyk.

but here's what's different from GNU coreutils "tail", and this is the part you gotta know:

  • The input and output to this tool are vnlog files, complete with a legend 👑
  • -c is not supported, because vnlog really doesn't want to break up lines. it said no. periodt. 🚫
  • --zero-terminated is not supported, because vnlog assumes newline-separated records 🌙
  • By default we call the "tail" tool to do the actual work. if the underlying tool has a different name or lives in an odd path, you can specify it by passing --vnl-tool TOOL 🛠️

past that? everything "tail" does is supported, so go see that man page for the detailed documentation. go on. I'll wait. 🫶

🧚 COMPATIBILITY 🧚

I use GNU/Linux-based systems exclusively, but everything has been tested functional on FreeBSD and OSX in addition to Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS. I can imagine there's something I missed when testing on non-Linux systems, so please let me know if you find any issues 🙈

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

🎀 REPOSITORY 🎀

https://github.com/dkogan/vnlog/

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Dima Kogan "<dima@secretsauce.net>"

Copyright 2018 Dima Kogan "<dima@secretsauce.net>"

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

and that's the whole page bestie 🫶 this was the vnlog manual, section 1, dated 2026-01-26. slay, go tail something. 💅✨

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