David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk> writes:

> Since tail only processes a single file at a time, tail -f on multple
> files just doesn't make sense.
> If you want the merged output from many files just run multiple copies
> of tail -f in the background....

The GNU/Linux implementation of tail -f with multiple files (which I
wrote many years ago) is more convenient, because it announces each
time it switches to showing a new file.

I often use it to tail a whole set of log files.

Some sample output that I just picked up:

==> uucp/log/main/current <==
2005-07-02 07:40:07.391760500 tcpserver: status: 1/40
2005-07-02 07:40:07.444202500 tcpserver: pid 24906 from 71.133.8.30
2005-07-02 07:40:09.507765500 tcpserver: ok 24906 yosemite.airs.com:205.217.158.180:540 adsl-71-133-8-30.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net:71.133.8.30::45630
2005-07-02 07:40:13.989344500 tcpserver: end 24906 status 0
2005-07-02 07:40:13.989353500 tcpserver: status: 0/40
2005-07-02 08:40:03.819089500 tcpserver: status: 1/40
2005-07-02 08:40:03.819307500 tcpserver: pid 3543 from 71.133.8.30
2005-07-02 08:40:05.868365500 tcpserver: ok 3543 yosemite.airs.com:205.217.158.180:540 adsl-71-133-8-30.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net:71.133.8.30::47066
2005-07-02 08:40:10.288365500 tcpserver: end 3543 status 0
2005-07-02 08:40:10.288374500 tcpserver: status: 0/40

==> smtpd/log/main/current <==
2005-07-02 08:52:04.388866500 tcpserver: status: 1/40

==> dnscache/log/main/current <==
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444609500 query 114850 7f000001:fccb:eebc 12 180.158.217.205.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444615500 cached 12 180.158.217.205.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444619500 sent 114850 77
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444905500 query 114851 7f000001:e77a:701d 12 183.0.18.64.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444910500 cached 12 183.0.18.64.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:04.444913500 sent 114851 79
2005-07-02 08:52:05.269896500 query 114852 7f000001:fccb:eebc 12 180.158.217.205.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:05.269903500 cached 12 180.158.217.205.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:05.269906500 sent 114852 77
2005-07-02 08:52:05.270279500 query 114853 7f000001:e77a:701d 12 244.209.107.12.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:05.270284500 cached 12 244.209.107.12.in-addr.arpa.
2005-07-02 08:52:05.270287500 sent 114853 74

Ian