1. View log files in real time.
2. Debug server problems.
3. Troubleshoot security issues.
4. Monitor spammers, ip-address, scripts and more.

tail -f file-name command syntax

The basic syntax is:

tail fileName
tail /path/to/log/file
tail [options] /path/to/log/file

If your log file name is /var/log/lighttpd/access.log, enter:
tail -f /var/log/lighttpd/access.log

If your php log file name is /var/log/lighttpd/scripts.log, enter
tail -f /var/log/lighttpd/scripts.log
Sample outputs:

 47 -> 400 
2013-11-24 21:47:29: (request.c.622) invalid character in key GET /nixcraft/linux/docs/uniqlinuxfeatures/lsst HTTP/1.1
Host: cyberciti.biz
Accept: */*
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0 FirePHP/0.7.4
 
 /5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0 FirePHP/0.7.4
 
 47 -> 400

You will get a scrolling view of the /var/log/lighttpd/scripts.log for all incoming entries on screen. To stop simply hit CTRL+C. Please note that you may need to login as root user to view log files.

Recommend readings

• HowTo: See multiple log files on UNIX / Linux console using multitail command.
• See tail(1) command man page for more information.