On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:59:46 +0200 Sven Joachim <svenj...@gmx.de> wrote:
> On 2009-09-22 04:17 +0200, Celejar wrote: > > > I'm seeing some really weird problems on my system. I don't know if > > they're at all related, but I'll report them both in the same > > email, in case they are. > > > > 1) tail -f stops working - I see the tail of the file, but it fails > > to refresh when content is added to the file. What on earth could > > be causing this? This is tail from coreutils - nothing fancy, no > > inotify dependency, just simple polling of the file! > > In coreutils 7.5 tail has gone fancy and uses inotify if possible, see > the NEWS file. It works for me, but there are some bugs that have > been fixed in 7.6 (which is not packaged for Debian yet) that may > affect you. Citing the coreutils 7.6 NEWS file: > > tail -f (inotify-enabled) now flushes any initial output before > blocking. Before, this would print nothing and wait: stdbuf -o 4K > tail -f /etc/passwd Note that this bug affects tail -f only when its > standard output is buffered, which is relatively unusual. > [bug introduced in coreutils-7.5] > > tail -f once again works with standard input. inotify-enabled tail > -f would fail when operating on a nameless stdin. I.e., tail -f > < /etc/passwd would say "tail: cannot watch `-': No such file or > directory", yet the relatively baroque tail -f /dev/stdin > < /etc/passwd would work. Now, the offending usage causes tail to > revert to its conventional sleep-based (i.e., not inotify-based) > implementation. [bug introduced in coreutils-7.5] Thanks, good to know. Right now, after a reboot into a different kernel, 'tail -f' is working fine, but I'll bear this in mind if / when the problem occurs again. Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
