---
name: "inotail"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "inotail"
version: "0.5-2"
release: "Debian 8 (Jessie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/inotail"
---

# inotail(1)

A fast and lightweight version of tail using inotify

## NAME

inotail - A fast and lightweight version of tail using inotify

## SYNOPSIS

**inotail** \[OPTION\]... \[FILE\]...

## DESCRIPTION

**inotail** is a replacement for the 'tail' program found in the base installation of every Linux/UNIX system. It makes use of the inotify infrastructure in recent versions of the Linux kernel to speed up tailing files in the follow mode (the '-f' option). Standard tail polls the file every second by default while inotail listens to special events sent by the kernel through the inotify API to determine whether a file needs to be reread. *Note:* inotail will not work on systems running a kernel without inotify. To enable inotify, please set CONFIG\_INOTIFY=y in your Linux kernel configuration and recompile it.

Currently inotail is not fully compatible to neither POSIX or GNU tail but might be in the future.

## OPTIONS

- **-c *N*, --bytes=*N***

  output the last N bytes. If the first character of N is a '+', begin printing with the Nth character from the start of each file.

- **-f, --follow**

  keep the file(s) open and print appended data as the file grows

- **-n *N*, --lines=*N***

  output the last N lines (default: 10) If the first character of N is a '+', begin printing with the Nth line from the start of each file.

- **-v, --verbose**

  print headers with file names

- **-h, --help**

  show help and exit

- **-V, --version**

  show inotail version and exit

## AUTHOR

Written by Tobias Klauser \<tklauser@distanz.ch\>

## SEE ALSO

**[tail(1)](/tail/1.md),** **[inotify(7)](/inotify/7.md)**