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Is it possible to `tail -f` the output of `dmesg`?

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026210596 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

I want to do something like but it doesn't work: I use Mac OS X v10.6.7 (Snow Leopard). By doing that, will exit, instead of monitoring the output. I wonder if there is a way to do it, or an equivalent command. P.S., I don't think a loop will be a good enough idea.

Error Output

dmesg | tail -f

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Fix for: Is it possible to `tail -f` the output of `dmesg`?

Low Risk

You are probably looking for some combination of messages from various log files. Try: …to get a pretty good overview of the system. If you want more or less than that, research what log file the messages you want to see are being placed in. Also look into using to file and color code and filter multiple log files at once. Edit: This wasn't very relevant when I answered this, but as this page gets a lot of hits I'm thought it worth mentioning since kernel 3.5, you can do this:

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