Good morning,

When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is happening on VT2
by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f to get a
continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it possible
to watch another VT in real time over ssh?

Thanks, Craig



Sent - Gtek Web Mail

Good morning, When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is happening on VT2 by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f to get a continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it possible to watch another VT in real time over ssh? Thanks, Craig



What I am trying to do is monitor logs on a remote system. I have the log entries going
to the log files as well as VT2. If I ssh into the machine and tail -f the system log,
it quits updating when the log is rotated. So I figured if I could watch the second
console in real time I would be able to see the same thing without interruption when
the log file rotates. Is this possible? Is there a better way to do it?


Sent - Gtek Web Mail



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On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:20:16AM -0500, craig@gtek.biz wrote:
> Good morning, When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is happening on VT2 by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f to get a continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it possible to watch another VT in real time over ssh? Thanks, Craig

Try the "vtgrab" package.

On Friday, September 28, 2012 10:29, "Darac Marjal" <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> said:

> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:20:16AM -0500, craig@gtek.biz wrote:
>> Good morning, When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is
>> happening on VT2 by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f
>> to get a continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it
>> possible to watch another VT in real time over ssh? Thanks, Craig
>
> Try the "vtgrab" package.
>
>
Bingo! Thank you so much. I didn't even think of a vnc like console solution.
I was focused on ssh. Your reply is much appreciated.


Sent - Gtek Web Mail



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On 28/09/12 16:20, craig@gtek.biz wrote:

Good morning, When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is happening on VT2 by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f to get a continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it possible to watch another VT in real time over ssh? Thanks, Craig



What I am trying to do is monitor logs on a remote system. I have the log entries going
to the log files as well as VT2. If I ssh into the machine and tail -f the system log,
it quits updating when the log is rotated. So I figured if I could watch the second
console in real time I would be able to see the same thing without interruption when
the log file rotates. Is this possible? Is there a better way to do it?


Try "tail --follow=mylogfile", this will followed the currently named
"mylogfile" even if the old file is renamed and a new one opened, rather
than following the old file which -f does.


Also the "-F" option will do similar, but won't fail if the file is
inaccessible for a while.


--
Dom


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On Sep 28, 2012 11:30 AM, "Darac Marjal" <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> wrote:

>

> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:20:16AM -0500, craig@gtek.biz wrote:

> > Good morning, *When I ssh into a remote system, I am able to see what is happening on VT2 by entering the command 'cat /dev/vcs2'. I tried using tail -f to get a continuous output of the console, but it fails to ever update. Is it possible to watch another VT in real time over ssh? *Thanks, Craig


>

> Try the "vtgrab" package.

>

>


That would work. However I think you could also have logrotate use a socket for logging (at least -ng). What you might really want to look into is splunk or graylog2 (or the other solutions I can never remember).


Also, socat is another solution for playing with device io. I don't believe dealing with vt is the right solution however. Also keep in mind none of these solutions will encrypt the stream - use stunnel or similar here.

> Try "tail --follow=mylogfile", this will followed the currently named
> "mylogfile" even if the old file is renamed and a new one opened, rather
> than following the old file which -f does.
>

<smack to the forehead>
I used to know that. Sadly, I even looked at the man page yesterday
before posting and still missed that. Thanks for jogging my brain. It
obviously needed it.

FWIW, I will be setting up a log server in the near future, but we need
this production machine now, and I've got a couple of other priorities,
so I just have an xterm open for monitoring it's logs in real time so I
can start to understand what is normal and what is not for now. The log
server will negate this step.

Thanks!


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> That would work. However I think you could also have logrotate use a socket
> for logging (at least -ng). What you might really want to look into is
> splunk or graylog2 (or the other solutions I can never remember).
>
> Also, socat is another solution for playing with device io. I don't believe
> dealing with vt is the right solution however. Also keep in mind none of
> these solutions will encrypt the stream - use stunnel or similar here.
>

Thanks for the ideas, and the heads up. I'll test my various new options this
afternoon and decide what will work in the interim until I get the log server
set up, probably next week or the week after.


Sent - Gtek Web Mail



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