Multitail – Keyboard Commands

Caution: Unsupported. It looks like Multitail, while still available in many distributions, is no longer supported by its author.

The excellent Multitail can watch (and highlight, and search, etc.etc.) several files at once.  It’s a really useful tool for backend engineers accustomed to watching “Logfile TV”.

It has a large number of keyboard commands, most of which are very useful, but none of which seem to be documented anywhere.  Here they are, then:

MultiTail lets you create one or more windows in
one terminal. In each window one can monitor one
or more logfiles and(!)/or the output of external
programs: when using multiple inputs, they get
automatically merged.

In the main menu one can do add/delete windows,
move them, swap them, set regular expressions, set
color(-schemes) etc.

One can press the following keys:
 q  quit the program
 F1 this help
 /  search in all windows
 shift + / highlight in all windows
 b  scroll back
 B  scroll back in ALL windows merged into
     one window
 I  toggle case sensitivity for searches
 a  add a new window or add another file/
     program to an existing window
 d  delete a window (or a file/program from a
     window)
 s  swap the location of 2 windows
 e  enter/edit regular expressions
 f  enter/edit in line filter regexps
 c  set/change colors (only works if your
     terminal supports colors)
 C  edit the r/g/b components of a color
 b  scrollback in the buffer of a window
 v  toggle vertical split
 0...9 set a mark in a window so that you can
      easily see what has changed since the last
      time you looked
 R  restart a window
 ctrl + v select conversion scheme(s)
 ctrl + t toggle subwindow before lines
 Y  send a signal to a window (for commands)
 y  set linewrap
 o  wipe (clear) a window
 O  wipe all windows
 T  truncate a logfile
 g  make screendump
 r  redraw screen
 I  toggle case sensitivity for searches
 l  list keybindings
 i  info
 t  statistics
 j  set window sizes
 z  hide/unhide a window
 u  hide all windows but the one selected
 U  unhide all windows
 w  write a script which starts multitail
     with the current settings (the files that
     are monitored, regular expressions, etc.)
 n  clear the buffer of a window
 N  clear all buffers of all windows
 m  set the size of a buffer
 k  enter a (limited) terminal-mode
 p  pause all windows
 P  (un-)pause one window