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I'm looking for the equivalent of the Unix 'tail' command that will allow me to watch the output of a log file while it is being written to.
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Traditionally tail has been used to view the bottom X number of lines from a log file. While Windows doesn't have a standalone utility to do what tail does, we do have the Get-Content PowerShell cmdlet which happens to have a tail parameter.
The Tail command is popular in the Unix language and it is used to retrieve the specific number of lines from the end of the document or the log files. PowerShell doesn't have the command with the same name but from the PowerShell v3. 0 onwards, PowerShell has added -Tail parameter in the Get-Content cmdlet.
Open it with notepad $PROFILE. Then in the text document, create a new function: function Tail ($path) { Get-content -tail 15 -path $path -wait } This way you can access the function each time you start PowerShell. This should be the accepted answer.
On Unix-like operating systems, the tail command reads a file, and outputs the last part of it (the "tail"). The tail command can also monitor data streams and open files, displaying new information as it is written. For example, it's a useful way to monitor the newest events in a system log in real time.
If you use PowerShell then this works:
Get-Content filenamehere -Wait -Tail 30 Posting Stefan's comment from below, so people don't miss it
PowerShell 3 introduces a -Tail parameter to include only the last x lines
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