Date:         Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:10:51 -0500
Reply-To:     Michael Raithel <michaelraithel@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Michael Raithel <michaelraithel@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      Re: monitoring log file
In-Reply-To:  <403593359CA56C4CAE1F8F4F00DCFE7D0A1542BB@MAILBE2.westat.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear SAS-L-ers,

Michael A. Raithel posted the following to sasstudent:

> sasstudent, hey, I am giving _MY_ SAS students their final
> exam tonight. I hope that you are doing well in your SAS studies!
>
> When I want to check out the progress of my
> dynamically-expanding SAS logs in UNIX (and Linux)
> environments, I simply use the UNIX "tail" command.  It looks
> something like this:
>
> tail -50 /home/sasstudent/bigprog.log
>
> ...where "-50" is the number of lines I want it to print.
> You could also do:
>
> tail -f /home/sasstudent/bigprog.log
>
> ...to have it keep writing the log to your terminal as the
> log grows; until you hit a control break.  Would that do it for you?
>
> sasstudent, best of luck with your SAS studies!
>
Hmmm... I see that Mr. Raithel did not adequately describe the UNIX
"tail" command.  At least, not to my satisfaction.

The UNIX tail command prints the last xxx lines of a file.  You specify
the number of lines by using "-xxx"; which is a dash followed by the
number of final lines of a file that you want to have printed.

The UNIX "tail" command is the antithesis (<--Great SAT word) of the
UNIX "head" command, which prints the first xxx lines of a file.

BTW, if you fail to specify the number of lines, the first 10 lines or
the last ten lines are printed by the head and tail commands,
respectively.

Best of luck to all of you in your SAS endeavors!


I hope that this suggestion proves helpful now, and in the future!

Of course, all of these opinions and insights are my own, and do not
reflect those of my organization or my associates. All SAS code and/or
methodologies specified in this posting are for illustrative purposes
only and no warranty is stated or implied as to their accuracy or
applicability. People deciding to use information in this posting do so
at their own risk.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michael A. Raithel
"The man who wrote the book on performance"
E-mail: MichaelRaithel@westat.com

Author: Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment

Author: Tuning SAS Applications in the OS/390 and z/OS Environments,
Second Edition
http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bookdetails.jsp?catid=1&pc=58172

Author: The Complete Guide to SAS Indexes
http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bookdetails.jsp?catid=1&pc=60409

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when
the quo has lost its status. - Laurence J. Peter
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++