Tail Live Output of a Log File on Linux VPS or Server (SSH)

Maybe there is a log file you check frequently, or you want to watch updates to a log file in real time, as you are working on the server or application. Well, you’re in luck. There is a Linux command especially for that!

You will need to use a secure shell (SSH) session to run this command, though root privileges are not required. To watch a log file (or any file) updated live in real-time, use a modified tail command:

tail -f /path/thefile.log

The result will print any new lines to the shell as they are written to the file.

And that’s it!

This article applies to: 

• RHEL / CentOS Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• Debian Linux
• Most other Linux distributions