[GH-ISSUE #51] older versions of tail don't support the `-F` flag #33

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opened 2026-03-03 16:03:51 +03:00 by kerem · 5 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:51 +03:00

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Originally created by @jordanglassman on GitHub (Jul 20, 2015).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/51

C:\wildfly\domain\servers\xyz\log>frontail .\server.log
tail: invalid option -- F
Try `tail --help' for more information.

C:\wildfly\domain\servers\claire1\log>tail --version
tail (GNU textutils) 2.0
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.

Copyright (C) 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

From the newer, v2.1 tail docs:

Mandatory  arguments  to     long  options are mandatory for short options
       too.

       --retry
          keep trying to open a file even if it is inaccessible when  tail
          starts  or if it becomes inaccessible later; useful when follow-
          ing by name, i.e., with --follow=name

       -c, --bytes=N
          output the last N bytes

       -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
          output appended data as the file grows; -f, --follow, and --fol-
          low=descriptor are equivalent

       -F     same as --follow=name --retry

Recommendation is to use --follow=name --retry vice -F to support these versions, if practicable.

Originally created by @jordanglassman on GitHub (Jul 20, 2015). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/51 ``` C:\wildfly\domain\servers\xyz\log>frontail .\server.log tail: invalid option -- F Try `tail --help' for more information. C:\wildfly\domain\servers\claire1\log>tail --version tail (GNU textutils) 2.0 Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering. Copyright (C) 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ``` From the newer, v2.1 tail docs: ``` Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. --retry keep trying to open a file even if it is inaccessible when tail starts or if it becomes inaccessible later; useful when follow- ing by name, i.e., with --follow=name -c, --bytes=N output the last N bytes -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}] output appended data as the file grows; -f, --follow, and --fol- low=descriptor are equivalent -F same as --follow=name --retry ``` Recommendation is to use `--follow=name --retry` vice `-F` to support these versions, if practicable.

kerem closed this issue

2026-03-03 16:03:51 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:52 +03:00

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@mthenw commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015):

I guess that this is some kind of tail version for Windows, isn't it?

@mthenw commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015): I guess that this is some kind of `tail` version for Windows, isn't it?

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:52 +03:00

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@jordanglassman commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015):

This binary came from the msysgit distribution, which contains Windows ports of various unix tools that appears to come from GNU:

c:\users\jglassman>tail --version
tail (GNU textutils) 2.0
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.

Copyright (C) 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Compare to CentOS 7:

[jglassman@docker-server02 ~]$ tail --version
tail (GNU coreutils) 8.22
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor,
and Jim Meyering.

@jordanglassman commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015): This binary came from the msysgit distribution, which contains Windows ports of various unix tools that appears to come from GNU: ``` c:\users\jglassman>tail --version tail (GNU textutils) 2.0 Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering. Copyright (C) 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ``` Compare to CentOS 7: ``` [jglassman@docker-server02 ~]$ tail --version tail (GNU coreutils) 8.22 Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering. ```

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:52 +03:00

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@mthenw commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015):

Well, I generally don't want to do something specific for Windows and instead of that I'm planning to remove dependency to system binary and use node tail implementation. It's reported https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/38.

@mthenw commented on GitHub (Jul 21, 2015): Well, I generally don't want to do something specific for Windows and instead of that I'm planning to remove dependency to system binary and use node tail implementation. It's reported https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/38.

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:52 +03:00

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@ChristianWilkie commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2015):

FYI, for anyone with this issue I installed Git for Windows 2.5.2 with the installer option to include Unix tools on my path and it seems to include a newer tail that supports -F.

@ChristianWilkie commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2015): FYI, for anyone with this issue I installed [Git for Windows](https://github.com/git-for-windows/git) 2.5.2 with the installer option to include Unix tools on my path and it seems to include a newer tail that supports `-F`.

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:03:52 +03:00

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@mthenw commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2015):

Thanks @ChristianWilkie :)

@mthenw commented on GitHub (Sep 15, 2015): Thanks @ChristianWilkie :)