A "live" view of a logfile on Linux

by Lowell Heddings on

This approach works for any linux operating system, including Ubuntu, and is probably most often used in conjunction with web development work.

tail -f /path/thefile.log

This will give you a scrolling view of the logfile. As new lines are added to the end, they will show up in your console screen.

For Ruby on Rails, for instance, you can view the development logfile by running the command from your project directory:

tail -f log/development.log

As with all linux apps, Ctrl+C will stop it.

Lowell Heddings is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He spends all his free time making sure this site can bring you fresh geekery on a daily basis, and has been doing so for over eleven years.