# tail Input Plugin The tail plugin "tails" a logfile and parses each log message. By default, the tail plugin acts like the following unix tail command: ``` tail -F --lines=0 myfile.log ``` - `-F` means that it will follow the _name_ of the given file, so that it will be compatible with log-rotated files, and that it will retry on inaccessible files. - `--lines=0` means that it will start at the end of the file (unless the `from_beginning` option is set). see http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/tail.1.html for more details. The plugin expects messages in one of the [Telegraf Input Data Formats](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md). ### Configuration: ```toml # Stream a log file, like the tail -f command [[inputs.tail]] ## files to tail. ## These accept standard unix glob matching rules, but with the addition of ## ** as a "super asterisk". ie: ## "/var/log/**.log" -> recursively find all .log files in /var/log ## "/var/log/*/*.log" -> find all .log files with a parent dir in /var/log ## "/var/log/apache.log" -> just tail the apache log file ## ## See https://github.com/gobwas/glob for more examples ## files = ["/var/mymetrics.out"] ## Read file from beginning. from_beginning = false ## Whether file is a named pipe pipe = false ## Method used to watch for file updates. Can be either "inotify" or "poll". # watch_method = "inotify" ## Data format to consume. ## Each data format has its own unique set of configuration options, read ## more about them here: ## https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md data_format = "influx" ```