On Friday 20 October 2006 15:37, Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) wrote:
What I would like to know is what will happen to my Linux syste or a log file if I am reading the log file contents via konqueror when it needs to update itself? Are the changes stored in RAM until I refresh the konqi window or are the changes lost?
Nothing unusual happens, no data is lost. Konqueror (etc) gets a "snapshot" of the contents and the file can be modified independently of this. In Windows this doesn't work for many file types, because Windows is hard-core about not letting multiple processes use most files. e.g., you can't even COPY a file if it's in use by a process, which is not the case under Linux/Unix. And you certainly can't delete or overwrite a running .exe or .dll under Windows, but you can in Linux (not that doing so is a good idea, of course).
Are different files treated differently
Nope. It's all good.
ie reading te /var/log/messages file would be catastrophic if the system needed to update the file, but reading the var/log/ntp file would be fine as the changes would be saved in RAM until the konqi window is closed or refreshed.
If you want to dynamically view a changing log file, try: cd /var/log tail -f messages Then you'll see the changes as they are happening. Tap Ctrl-C to quit. -- ----- stephan@s11n.net http://s11n.net "...pleasure is a grace and is not obedient to the commands of the will." -- Alan W. Watts