I recommend using `less <FILE>` <shift-F> rather than plain `tail -f <FILE>` because you can ctrl-c to stop the tailing and then search the text using /. You can then resume tailing again later with another <shift-F>.
Finally, as the article alludes to, tail can monitor multiple files at once.
Same! If it weren’t for this, I’d use less, as the searchability is often handy.
But it’s funny how just one tiny (and possible unintended?) “feature” turns out to be so dang useful that I keep using tail.
"Dangling by a trivial feature"[0] seems to be a pretty common issue when people recommend 'better' software.
You still can't use it with less, but at least it allows you to mark "segments" of the log without switching to that window and mashing enter.
alias less='less --follow-name' # still requires <shift>-f to follow
alias tail='tail -F'Use "-S" to toggle the "--chop-long-lines" option at invocation or in interactive mode. This mode shows only one line on the screen for each line in a file and is helpful when viewing a log with entries much longer than the screen width. When lines are chopped less(1) lets you scroll horizontally with <LEFTARROW>/<RIGHTARROW>. Chopped mode also works in tail mode ("F" command or "+F" option).
As others have mentioned the search "/pattern" and filter "&pattern" commands are awesome and they also work in tail mode.
The -J option toggles the status column which is helpful when using search patterns or paging around a file.
Since less(1) has lots of features and navigation methods it’s good to remember the "h" command to show the help page.
bind next-file and prev-file to N and P instead of the default :n and :p.
Makes it much more convenient to flip through files.
[for some reason macos doesn't have the lesskey command even though it has the manual for it. shrug]
edit: child comment is a better solution.