---
name: "tailf"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "util-linux"
version: "2.29.2-1+deb9u1"
release: "Debian 9 (Stretch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tailf"
---

# tailf(1)

follow the growth of a log file

## NAME

tailf - follow the growth of a log file

## SYNOPSIS

**tailf** \[option\] *file*

## DESCRIPTION

**tailf is deprecated.** It may have unfixed bugs and will be removed from util-linux in March 2017. Nowadays it's safe to use **tail -f** (from coreutils), in contrast to what the original documentation below says.

**tailf** will print out the last 10 lines of the given *file* and then wait for this *file* to grow.  It is similar to **tail -f** but does not access the file when it is not growing.  This has the side effect of not updating the access time for the file, so a filesystem flush does not occur periodically when no log activity is happening.

**tailf** is extremely useful for monitoring log files on a laptop when logging is infrequent and the user wishes the hard disk to spin down to conserve battery life.

- **-n**, **--lines=*number***, **-*number***

  Output the last *number* lines, instead of the last 10.

- **-V**, **--version**

  **Display version information and exit.**

- **-h**, **--help**

  **Display help text and exit.**

## AUTHOR

**This program was originally written by Rik Faith (faith@acm.org) and may be freely** **distributed under the terms of the X11/MIT License.  There is ABSOLUTELY** **NO WARRANTY for this program.**

**The latest inotify-based implementation was written by Karel Zak (kzak@redhat.com).**

## SEE ALSO

[**less**(1)](/less/1.md), [**tail**(1)](/tail/1.md)

## AVAILABILITY

**The tailf command is part of the util-linux package and is available from** **ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.**