SINCE(1)

NAME
since - display content of a file since the last time

SYNOPSIS
since [-hnv] files

DESCRIPTION
since is similar to tail since it also displays the tail of a file. However since displays only the data which has been added since the last time since was run. If since has not been run before the entire file is displayed. since is useful for watching over log files.

EXAMPLE USAGE
since -v /var/log/xferlog | less (type the command, then ftp something from localhost, then type the command again).

OPTIONS

-h  Print a terse help message.

-n  Do not update the .since file which keeps track of file growth.

-v  Increase the verbosity of the output.

FILES
.since
    File recording the length of the files displayed previously. The location of the file can be set by using the SINCE environment variable, for example export SINCE= /var/log/sincefile will tell since to use the file /var/log/sincefile. If the SINCE environment variable has not been set since will use the HOME environment variable and store the information in the file .since in the directory pointed to by the variable. If neither the SINCE nor the HOME variable are set since will use the file /tmp/since.

BUGS
since will break when used across NFS on architectures which have different st_* field sizes. since uses the inode of a file as its key, if that inode is recycled since might get confused. since is not particularly efficient when storing the stat() information, but should work reasonably well unless you plan to look at thousands of files. Functionality equivalent to since can probably be achieved with a number of trivial shell scripts.

COPYING
since may only be used, distributed and modified in accordance with the terms of the GPL (GNU General Public License) as published by the FSF (Free Software Foundation).

SEE ALSO
tail(1), stat(2).