less shift f

on April 24, 2007 @ 05:19 PM

If you use a combination of piping to files and using the tail command with the -f option and/or using grep you may want to try just sticking with the less command and using the Shift-f to tell less to continue waiting for input from the file.

Before Shift-f you’ll see your normal output as shown by less:

Apr 23 20:24:39 elijah com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing 

You can tell if its working by looking at the last line of your less output.

1
2

Apr 23 20:24:39 elijah com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing 
Waiting for data... (interrupt to abort)

Now less is going to get updated whenever the file you are lessing has more data appended to it. Now hit / and start looking for whatever it is you want to find.

Another way to use one tool rather then three.