[GH-ISSUE #81] Error: spawn tail ENOENT on Windows 7 and Windows 8 #56

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opened 2026-03-03 16:04:03 +03:00 by kerem · 2 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:04:03 +03:00

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Originally created by @danielpacak on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/81

I got the following error on Windows 8 and Windows 7 with Node v4.4.5:

C:\>frontail okp.log
events.js:141
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: spawn tail ENOENT
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:870:11)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:178:32)
    at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:344:16)
    at nextTickCallbackWith2Args (node.js:442:9)
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:356:17)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:443:11)
    at startup (node.js:139:18)
    at node.js:968:3

However it works perfectly fine on Windows when I run the frontail through Git Bash. Is there something OS specific in the implementation that might cause the error?

Originally created by @danielpacak on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/mthenw/frontail/issues/81 I got the following error on Windows 8 and Windows 7 with Node v4.4.5: ``` C:\>frontail okp.log events.js:141 throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event ^ Error: spawn tail ENOENT at exports._errnoException (util.js:870:11) at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:178:32) at onErrorNT (internal/child_process.js:344:16) at nextTickCallbackWith2Args (node.js:442:9) at process._tickCallback (node.js:356:17) at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:443:11) at startup (node.js:139:18) at node.js:968:3 ``` However it works perfectly fine on Windows when I run the frontail through Git Bash. Is there something OS specific in the implementation that might cause the error?

kerem closed this issue

2026-03-03 16:04:04 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:04:04 +03:00

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@mthenw commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016):

Hey @danielpacak, frontail requires tail command available in OS. It's not present in Windows.

I guess that "Git Bash" is some kind of linux shell emulation, isn't it?

@mthenw commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016): Hey @danielpacak, frontail requires `tail` command available in OS. It's not present in Windows. I guess that "Git Bash" is some kind of linux shell emulation, isn't it?

kerem commented

2026-03-03 16:04:04 +03:00

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@danielpacak commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016):

Ah, my bad. I thought that you're watching log files programmatically with the fs package, streams and stuff instead of spawning a child tail process. Indeed Git Bash provides a shell emulator with some useful linux commands including tail, hence it works. Anyways the error message speaks for itself.

@danielpacak commented on GitHub (Sep 27, 2016): Ah, my bad. I thought that you're watching log files programmatically with the `fs` package, streams and stuff instead of spawning a child tail process. Indeed Git Bash provides a shell emulator with some useful linux commands including `tail`, hence it works. Anyways the error message speaks for itself.