The GNU tail -f program simply loops through the file list, performing an fstat on each file to determine if anything has changed.

If you want to reduce the load, consider how often you need a screen update. Every second, every 10 seconds? Then sleep for that interval before doing another round of polling.

-Mark


In reply to Re: nonblocking I/O - testing whether file has more data to read by kvale
in thread nonblocking I/O - testing whether file has more data to read by hv

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