{"id":13107,"date":"2019-04-01T01:09:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T01:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=13107"},"modified":"2019-04-01T01:09:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T01:09:03","slug":"multitail-monitor-multiple-files-simultaneously-in-a-single-linux-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/04\/01\/multitail-monitor-multiple-files-simultaneously-in-a-single-linux-terminal\/","title":{"rendered":"MultiTail \u2013 Monitor Multiple Files Simultaneously in a Single Linux Terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s a server administrator or a programmer some time we need to refer multiple logfiles for effectively troubleshooting tasks. To achieve this we have to open, tail or less a each logfile in a different shell. However, we can use traditional tail command like\u00a0tail -f \/var\/log\/messages<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0tail -f \/var\/log\/secure<\/strong>\u00a0in a single line. But if we want to see multiple files in a real-time we need to install a specific tool called\u00a0MultiTail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is MultiTail?<\/h3>\n

MultiTail<\/strong>\u00a0is an open source ncurses utility that can be used to display multiple logfiles to standard output in a single window or a single shell that shows last few lines of logfiles in a real-time like tail command which split console into more subwindows (much like\u00a0screen command<\/a>). It also supports color highlighting, filtering, adding and deleting windows and much more.<\/p>\n

Features<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Multiple input sources.<\/li>\n
  2. Color display using Regular Expression in the case of important informations.<\/li>\n
  3. Line filtering.<\/li>\n
  4. Interactive Menus for deleting and adding shells.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here is an example screen grab of MultiTail in action.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \"Install<\/a><\/p>\n

    MultiTail View<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Installation of MultiTail in Linux<\/h3>\n

    To get MultiTail on\u00a0Red Hat<\/strong>\u00a0based distributions, you must turn on\u00a0EPEL repository<\/a>\u00a0and then run the following command on the terminal to install it.<\/p>\n

    On RHEL\/CentOS\/Fedora<\/h5>\n
    # yum install -y multitail<\/pre>\n
    On Debian\/Ubuntu\/Linux Mint<\/h5>\n
    $ sudo apt-get update\r\n$ sudo apt-get install multitail<\/pre>\n
    Usage of MultiTail<\/h3>\n
    By default MultiTail does the same thing as \u2018tail -f<\/strong>\u2018, i.e. view files in a real time. To view\/monitor two different files in one window, the basic syntax is:<\/p>\n
    1. How To View 2 Files in Single Window<\/h4>\n
    root@tecmint:~# multitail \/var\/log\/apache2\/error.log \/var\/log\/apache2\/error.log.1<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"View<\/a><\/p>\n
    View Two Files in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    To scroll through the files, hit \u2018b<\/strong>\u2018 and select the file you want from the list.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"File<\/a><\/p>\n
    File Selection<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Once, you select the file, it will show you last\u00a0100 lines<\/strong>\u00a0of that selected file, to scroll through use the cursor keys. You can also use \u2018gg<\/strong>\u2018\/\u2019G<\/strong>\u2018 to move to the top\/bottom of the scroll window. If you want to view more lines, hit \u2018q\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0to exit and hit \u2018m<\/strong>\u2018 to enter a new value for the number of lines to view.<\/p>\n
    \n
    \"View<\/a><\/p>\n
    View File<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    2. How To View 2 Files in 2 Columns<\/h4>\n
    The following command will display two different files in\u00a02<\/strong>\u00a0columns.<\/p>\n
    [root@tecmint ~]# multitail -s 2 \/var\/log\/mysqld.log \/var\/log\/xferlog<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"View<\/a><\/p>\n
    View Files in 2 Columns<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    3. How To View Multiple Files in Multiple Columns<\/h4>\n
    Display\u00a03<\/strong>\u00a0files in three columns.<\/p>\n
    [root@localhost ~]# multitail -s 3 \/var\/log\/mysqld.log \/var\/log\/xferlog \/var\/log\/yum.log<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"View<\/a><\/p>\n
    View Files in 3 Columns<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    4. Merge\/View Multiple Files in Multiple Columns<\/h4>\n
    Displays\u00a05<\/strong>\u00a0logfiles while merging\u00a02<\/strong>\u00a0files in one column and keep\u00a02<\/strong>\u00a0files in two columns with only\u00a0one<\/strong>\u00a0in the left column.<\/p>\n
    [root@localhost ~]# multitail -s 2 -sn 1,3  \/var\/log\/mysqld.log -I \/var\/log\/xferlog \/var\/log\/monitorix \/var\/log\/ajenti.log \/var\/log\/yum.log<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Multiple<\/a><\/p>\n
    Multiple View Files<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    5. How to View File and Execute a Command<\/h4>\n
    Shows\u00a01<\/strong>\u00a0file while \u2018-l<\/strong>\u2018 option allows command to execute in a window.<\/p>\n
    [root@localhost ~]# multitail \/var\/log\/iptables.log -l \"ping server.nixcraft.in\"<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Run<\/a><\/p>\n
    Run Command and View File<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    6. How to Merge\/View Two Files in Different Color<\/h4>\n
    Merge\u00a02<\/strong>\u00a0logfiles in one window, but give different color to each logfile so that you can easily understand what lines are for what logfile.<\/p>\n
    [root@localhost ~]# multitail -ci green \/var\/log\/yum.log -ci yellow -I \/var\/log\/mysqld.log<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"View<\/a><\/p>\n
    View Files in Color<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Conclusion<\/h3>\n
    We\u2019ve only covered few basic usage of multitail command. For a complete list of options and keys you can look at the man page of multitail or you may press \u2018h<\/strong>\u2018 key for help while the program runs.<\/p>\n
    Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Whether it\u2019s a server administrator or a programmer some time we need to refer multiple logfiles for effectively troubleshooting tasks. To achieve this we have to open, tail or less a each logfile in a different shell. However, we can use traditional tail command like\u00a0tail -f \/var\/log\/messages\u00a0or\u00a0tail -f \/var\/log\/secure\u00a0in a single line. But if we … <\/p>\n
    Continue reading “MultiTail \u2013 Monitor Multiple Files Simultaneously in a Single Linux Terminal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13108,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107\/revisions\/13108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}