XTAIL(1)

📦 version 2.1, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

xtail — watch the growth of files 👀🌱

✨ SYNTAX ✨

xtail entry ...

That's it bestie, just hand it some *entry*s and let it cook 🍳

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so. Xtail monitors one or more files and shows you everything that gets written to a file from the moment you invoke the command. no cap. and the way it's genuinely so useful for monitoring multiple logfiles at the same time?? multiple. logfiles. simultaneously. we love a multitasking icon 👑

If an entry you give on the command line is a directory, xtail monitors all the files in that directory, including the ones that get created after you invoked xtail. yes, it sees the future (kinda) 🔮✨

If an entry you give on the command line doesn't exist, xtail is not gonna throw a fit about it — it will watch for it and start monitoring it the moment it shows up. patient king behavior fr fr 🫶

When it switches files in the display, it prints a banner showing the pathname of the file, so you always know who's talking 📢

An interrupt character (usually CTRL/C or DEL) displays a list of the most recently modified files being watched 📋✨

Send a quit signal (usually CTRL/backslash) to stop xtail 🛑

heads up bestie: those signals are literally how you talk to it. interrupt = show me the recents, quit = bye bye 💅

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

  • tail(1) — the cousin, the origin story, the blueprint 💜

💀 NOTES 💀

ngl, Xtail may be easily confused. like. it's giving golden retriever energy. for example: if you ask it to monitor a file multiple times, it probably will 🙈 (yes, more than once, on purpose, it does not care)

And if you misspell a filename, xtail will treat it as a nonexistent entry and happily wait for its creation. happily. it's just gonna sit there. waiting. forever. for a file that will never come 😭

My favorite use is:

xtail /usr/spool/uucp/.Log/*

periodt. iconic. that one wildcard is doing so much heavy lifting and it's eating 💅🔥

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com> — thank you for this masterpiece, we are obsessed 🎀

and that's the whole page bestie!! this one lives in the General Commands Manual, and the footer just says XTAIL(1) with no version or date attached — so like, mysterious. no timestamp. no source. just vibes 🦋✨ bye!! 💖

📦 where this page comes from