gistfile1.php

<?php

	/**
	 * Slightly modified version of http://www.geekality.net/2011/05/28/php-tail-tackling-large-files/
	 * @author Torleif Berger, Lorenzo Stanco
	 * @link http://stackoverflow.com/a/15025877/995958
	 * @license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
	 */
	function tailCustom($filepath, $lines = 1, $adaptive = true) {

		// Open file
		$f = @fopen($filepath, "rb");
		if ($f === false) return false;

		// Sets buffer size, according to the number of lines to retrieve.
		// This gives a performance boost when reading a few lines from the file.
		if (!$adaptive) $buffer = 4096;
		else $buffer = ($lines < 2 ? 64 : ($lines < 10 ? 512 : 4096));

		// Jump to last character
		fseek($f, -1, SEEK_END);

		// Read it and adjust line number if necessary
		// (Otherwise the result would be wrong if file doesn't end with a blank line)
		if (fread($f, 1) != "\n") $lines -= 1;
		
		// Start reading
		$output = '';
		$chunk = '';

		// While we would like more
		while (ftell($f) > 0 && $lines >= 0) {

			// Figure out how far back we should jump
			$seek = min(ftell($f), $buffer);

			// Do the jump (backwards, relative to where we are)
			fseek($f, -$seek, SEEK_CUR);

			// Read a chunk and prepend it to our output
			$output = ($chunk = fread($f, $seek)) . $output;

			// Jump back to where we started reading
			fseek($f, -mb_strlen($chunk, '8bit'), SEEK_CUR);

			// Decrease our line counter
			$lines -= substr_count($chunk, "\n");

		}

		// While we have too many lines
		// (Because of buffer size we might have read too many)
		while ($lines++ < 0) {

			// Find first newline and remove all text before that
			$output = substr($output, strpos($output, "\n") + 1);

		}

		// Close file and return
		fclose($f);
		return trim($output);

	}

?>

@igorpan I'd say it's safe to say that 99 times out of 100 the file we're tailing was written by the current file system . Either way, assumptions are being made regarding the line ending.

Thanks for making this function available. Could you please apply a license (like BSD/MIT) to it? Or point to the license if it is posted elsewhere.

Sorry everyone for not replying, it looks like GitHub does not notify me for comments on gists.

@mookman288 @bkdotcom Searching for "\n" should work both in Linux and Windows, because the latter write line ends as "\r\n".

@heathermeeker I didn't apply any license to the code: feel free to use it. The original code from which this version is derived is here (as stated in my Stack Overflow answer), if you dig a bit you can find it's licensed with Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Then, I'll say, just give credit to him in a comment in the source, and you'll be ok. I just made a revision adding all that infos in the gist itself.

thanks lorenzos, it's working like a charm and added to my permanent library :)

Well... I added it to a project for a client of mine and it works wonderfully. Thank you very much @lorenzos

Sorry for naive question...
What happens when, during the execution of this code, an attempt is made to write to the log?

Sorry for naive question...
What happens when, during the execution of this code, an attempt is made to write to the log?

you must open the file in LOCK exclusive mode then or make a copy (if it's possible)

https://www.w3schools.com/php/func_filesystem_flock.asp

// Jump back to where we started reading
fseek($f, -mb_strlen($chunk, '8bit'), SEEK_CUR);

Why not use fseek($f, -$seek, SEEK_CUR);