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Just a reminder that less(1) also does tail -f by pressing the 'F' key,

> Scroll forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is reached. Normally this command would be used when already at the end of the file. It is a way to monitor the tail of a file which is growing while it is being viewed. (The behavior is similar to the "tail -f" command.)

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This is why I prefer less to tail. You can do 'F' to have a constantly updated log, and 'Ctrl-C' to stop updating it when you see something odd and the go back to the live update with 'F' again. All without exiting less.

I didn't know that. Incredibly useful, thanks!

For bonus points, you can put in a search ('/' + your search phrase), start tailing with 'F' (by the way, that's a capital F, so shift + F key), and have it highlight matching strings as stuff streams in. Makes it easy to spot things if the log is fast-moving.

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