Tail multiple files in CentOS

Question

I want to tail multiple files (and follow them) in CentOS, I've tried this:

tail -f file1 file2 file3

but the output is very unfriendly

I've also had a look at multitail but can't find a CentOS version.

What other choices do I have?

Answer 1

You could simulate multitail by opening multiple instances of tail -f in Emacs subwindows.

Answer 2

I usually just open another xterm and run a separate 'tail -f' there.

Otherwise if I'm using the 'screen' tool, I'll set up separate 'tail -f' commands there. I don't like that as much because it takes a few keystrokes to enable scrolling in screen before using the Page Up and Page Down keys. I prefer to just use xterm's scroll bar.

Answer 3

Multitail is available for CentOS in rpmforge repos. To add rpmforge repository check the documentation on wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories