How to use "tail"? .. no, the other kind!

Rails
1

I am reading “The Rails Way”. On page 20, Obie says use
$ tail -f log/development_log

OK, I am a windows VB guy. I don’t know what that means. I assume it
is a command? does it work in windows
do I have to be in IRB. I just get errors.

Thanks in advance.

2

Ruby F. wrote:

I am reading “The Rails Way”. On page 20, Obie says use
$ tail -f log/development_log

Get…

The Linux tutorial will cover BASH.

Tip: After you learn a little BASH, you will not go back to CMD.EXE.
Most of the
keystrokes and commands are much easier to use, and more flexible.

Also, don’t install CygWin’s version of Ruby, because if you current
Ruby is
configured well enough to run Rails, you don’t need to … derail that.
But you
might find yourself running cmd /c rake instead of just rake, for
example.

And major props, honestly, to any book author who sincerely forgets
there are
Windows users out there…

3

Thanks Philp,
I do have a Ubuntu box and I can do some rudimentary chugging about,
but I bought a new lenovo and feel compelled to use it after dropping
that much coin. I tried to install Ubuntu on the Lenovo and it died.
Fiesty fawn I believe. Any thoughts on what might run?
I have a new harddrive that is circling around town in a UPS truck as
we speak, so that I can play around and get some form of linux going
as Billy Gates is not on my Christmas card list.

Oh the joy of setting up a new system. ought to be fun. I will prolly
wait for that rather than cygwin.

Thanks again.

4

Hi Ruby F. - If you do end up having any type of window
installation I do recommend installing cygwin on it. It goes beyond
just tail and bash, you get MANY of the unix based tools (which are
essential IMHO) available to you! It’s stable too, I have used it in a
production environment.

5

Ruby F. wrote:

I do have a Ubuntu box and I can do some rudimentary chugging about,
but I bought a new lenovo and feel compelled to use it after dropping
that much coin. I tried to install Ubuntu on the Lenovo and it died.
Fiesty fawn I believe. Any thoughts on what might run?

-Cygwin Installation

cygwin is the core set of Linux toys, using Windows as its Hardware
Abstraction
Layer.

6

Do a google search on “windows tail”, you’ll get a couple of options
there.

7

Sigh. Come see the repression inherent in the system…

8

And major props, honestly, to any book author who sincerely forgets there are
Windows users out there…

Phlip,

Thanks for the props. I thought you might like this snippet from the
introduction to the book:

Required Technology

A late-model Apple MacBookPro with 4GB RAM, running OSX 10.4. Just
kidding, of
course. Linux is pretty good for Rails development also. Microsoft
Windows — well, let me
just put it this way — your mileage may vary. I’m being nice and
diplomatic in saying that. We
specifically do not discuss Rails development on Microsoft platforms
in this book. To my
knowledge, most working Rails professionals develop and deploy on
non-Microsoft platforms.

Cheers,
Obie