Less – Does Less Have a Feature Like tail –follow=name (-F)

lesspagertail

The command less can be used to replace tail in

tail -f file

to provide features like handling binary output and navigating the scrollback:

less +F file

The + prefix means "pretend I type that after startup", and the key F starts following.

But can less also replace

tail --follow=name file

which follows file even if the actual file gets deleted or moved away, like a log file that is moved to file.log.1, and then a new file is created with the same name as the followed file?

Best Answer

Yes, less can follow by file name

The feature has a fairly obscure syntax:

less --follow-name +F file.log

With less, --follow-name is different from the tail option --follow=name.
It does not make less follow the file, instead it modifies the behaviour of the command key F inside of less to follow based on the file name, not the file descriptor.

Also, there is no normal option to start less in follow mode.
But you can use the command line to give keystrokes to execute after startup, by prefixing them with +.
Combining the modifier option with +F, less will actually start in the (modified) follow mode.

Use +F alone for the equivalent of plain tail -f:

less +F file.log
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