The 'less' command-line equivalent of 'tail -f'

Question

I would like to open up a file using less, and have it automatically scroll the file similar to tail -f.

I know that I can do less file, and then hit Shift-F to forward forever; like tail -f.

I need less because it provides the --raw-control-chars flag, which is necessary because my input is colorful.

Answer 1

use the command "F" while inside of less.

less mylogfile.txt
F

or, to do so automatically, use the +cmd option:

less +F mylogfile.txt

Answer 2

I prefer tail -F

-F - The -F option implies the -f option, but tail will also check to see if the file being followed has been renamed or rotated.

The less equivalent: less +F --follow-name

Answer 3

Both of those 2 options have the pro/con, for the more detail explanation, pls refer to the blog: https://www.brianstorti.com/stop-using-tail/ ; the author explained it fairly well.

Simply put:

• tail -F *.txt uses for reading multiple files is better than less +F *.txt.

In contrast, using less +F error_log.txt (using Ctrl-C & F to unload/load the new data) is better than tail -F error_log.txt for reading 1 file only.