From: Jim Meyering <meyering@redhat.com>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 14:09:42 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: doc: describe how kernel inotify support affects tail -f
X-Git-Tag: v8.13~161
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=acbfebeb8d22a87b76fae32d8d9bf0473e178fdf;p=thirdparty%2Fcoreutils.git

doc: describe how kernel inotify support affects tail -f

* doc/coreutils.texi (tail invocation) [-f]: Mention how inotify
kernel support makes a difference.
Prompted by http://bugzilla.redhat.com/662900
---

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 289c0baae8..dfaf4c9ce8 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -2830,6 +2830,11 @@ no @var{file} operand is specified and standard input is a FIFO or a pipe.
 Likewise, the @option{-f} option has no effect for any
 operand specified as @samp{-}, when standard input is a FIFO or a pipe.
 
+With kernel inotify support, output is asynchronous and generally very prompt.
+Otherwise, @command{tail} sleeps for one second between checks---
+use @option{--sleep-interval=@var{N}} to change that default---which can
+make the output appear slightly less responsive or bursty.
+
 @item -F
 @opindex -F
 This option is the same as @option{--follow=name --retry}.  That is, tail