According to the tail man page, tail will print the last 10 lines of each file to standard output. In simplest terms, tail prints out the most recent entries to a file as they are written.

With tail, you can view a Linux log file as the system writes to it in real time. So while you’re trying to troubleshoot that system, you can follow the syslog, the auth.log, ...

The thing is, Linux keeps a lot of log files. Some are useful to users, while others might not be so helpful. Many apps also install their own log files, so you can troubleshoot a single app.

Multitail allows you to watch multiple files as they are being updated -- like a split-window tail -f display. Let's check out how you can use it to monitor system activity and your files.

If you've ever used the tail command on log files, you'll instantly appreciate multitail. My friend (and LJ reader) Nick Danger introduced me to multitail, and I can't believe how useful it is.