If you are using a tail that does not have the -f flag (On debian-based systems, the shell you can drop into on install is like this), then you can combine tail

If you are using a tail that does not have the -f flag (On debian-based systems, the shell you can drop into on install is like this), then you can combine tail with watch to get something close to tail -f. watch -n 2 tail $FILE Of course, you will almost never come across an implementation of tail that does not include the -f flag.