Emacs Lisp function `tail-f`

tail-f.el

(defun tail-f (file)
  "Create a COMINT mode buffer running the `tail -f` command on
specified FILE. If FILE is a ssh/scp style remote file spec,
e.g.,

  user@remote.host.com:/path/to/file.txt

then a ssh connection is opened to remote.host.com, and `tail -f`
is invoked on the remote server."
  (interactive "fFile: ")
  (let ((buf-name (concat "tail-f " file))
	(re "\\(\\w+\\)@\\([^:]+\\):\\(.*\\)"))
    (if (string-match re file)
	(let ((user (match-string 1 file))
	      (host (match-string 2 file))
	      (file1 (match-string 3 file)))
	  (make-comint buf-name "ssh" nil
		       "-l" user
		       host
		       "tail" "-f" file1))
      (make-comint buf-name "tail" nil "-f" (expand-file-name file)))
    (pop-to-buffer (concat "*" buf-name "*"))))