On Sun 31 May 2026 at 10:49:16 (-0700), AC wrote: > On 2026-05-31 05:15, Darac Marjal wrote: > > On 24/05/2026 19:49, AC wrote: > > > Do any of you use Multitail to monitor your logs? Have you > > > ever seen it randomly close some or all of the files you're > > > monitoring for no apparent reason? > > > > > > Every one of my Debian installs does this randomly and I can't > > > seem to figure out why. The program itself continues to run > > > but all the windows/files within it close. This isn't > > > happening on one Redhat machine that I use which uses the same > > > Multitail configurations. > > > > > > I may have to resort to using just screen/tmux and custom > > > scripts. But I like Multitail because I can customize things > > > like highlighting in color or filtering unneeded text so I > > > hope I can actually fix it. > > > > > I've seen this in the past year or so too, but haven't yet got > > around to investigating. I have a script which runs (among other > > parameters) "multitail ... -f /var/log/syslog -f /var/log/mail.log > > -I /var/log/ dovecot.log -f /var/log/nginx/access.log". This runs > > in tmux, so I can keep a tmux tab open and see all the logs > > streaming past. This script used to be quite reliable, but > > something happened a while ago and now, when I connect to tmux I > > can occasionally find one or more of the multitail windows > > missing. "-f" is _supposed_ to follow the filename, not the > > descriptor so _should_ work fine with logrotate. > > > > It happens only occasionally, though, so it's usually easiest to > > just quit and restart multitail. > > > > Mine are usually running in xterms and not using screen or tmux. It > seems to happen at the same time every time so I'm thinking it's > related to a log rotate or other timed event but I can't figure out > what exactly kills it or why.
When I use tail, I use -F, not -f, and that works through log rotations. Do you need --retry or --retry-all in multitail to achieve the same effect? Cheers, David.
