Multitail

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MultiTail is a program for monitoring multiple log files,^[1] in the fashion of the original tail program. The original tail presents the last few lines of a single log file, optionally providing a real-time display of the growing file.

MultiTail started as an attempt to provide a program which would display two log files in a split screen. Originally it was a copy of wtail.^[2] The difference was that wtail started reading at the start of the file by itself while MultiTail invoked one or more tail processes which naturally only display the last few lines. The author really enjoys adding all features and twists to software he writes so the next step of adding filtering support was quickly done. After that coloring, horizontal split and lots more were added. Added abilities have made it a configurable tool that can monitor not only log files but also the output of other commands, such as Tcpdump.

MultiTail splits the terminal window or the console of a Unix system into two or more subwindows into which it can merge log files and command outputs. It can also display (like the original tail) in a single window.

Capabilities include:

Monitoring of wildcards: if another file matching the wildcard has a more recent modification date, it will automatically switch to that file. This allows monitoring a complete directory of files
Merging of two or more input sources
Use of colors when displaying the log files (through regular expressions), to distinguish important information.
Filtering of lines (through regular expressions)
Interactive menus for editing regular expressions and for deleting and adding windows.
Use the output of shell scripts and other software.
Mimicking the functionality of tools such as watch when viewing the output of external software.

Platforms: