How to Follow a Log File in Real Time in Linux (tail -f)

tail -f prints the last lines of a file and then keeps running, displaying new lines as they're written — commonly used to watch logs live.

Key points

• Extremely common for watching an application or server log as new events happen: tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
• tail -n 50 shows just the last 50 lines without following; combine both with tail -n 50 -f
• Press Ctrl+C to stop following and return to the shell prompt

Example

tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log