Why does running the "tail -f" command print the message "tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling" while opening a symlink?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Running the "tail -f" command on a symlink prints the "tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling" message.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 (onwards)
  • coreutils-8.4-31.el6.x86_64

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase, tools, and much more.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In

New to Red Hat?

Learn more about Red Hat subscriptions

Using a Red Hat product through a public cloud?

How to access this content