Why won't `tail -f` follow my syslog when running live?

Question

I want to monitor /var/log/syslog for any changes in realtime (or within-a-few-seconds-of-time), but tail -f won't update with any new changes.

I'm running Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 17 XFCE live now, but this hasn't worked on live iso's of Ubuntu, Xubuntu, or Linux Mint Mate either.

I've tried these:

$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
$ tail -f --retry -s 1 /var/log/syslog
$ tail --follow=name /var/log/syslog
$ tail --follow=name --retry /var/log/syslog
$ tail --follow=name --retry -s 1 /var/log/syslog

But it only initially outputs the last few lines of the file, then no updates when the file grows (when, for example, trying to mount an empty file gives about 15 lines of errors).

Actually, even trying to follow a test file in my home folder doesn't seem to work, running tail -f testfile and then (in another terminal):
$ echo "new stuff" >> testfile
$ echo "new stuff2" >> testfile
$ echo "3" >> testfile
doesn't result in any updates to tail either...
But if I put testfile in /tmp(mounted on a tmpfs) then it does follow the file's changes.

Why won't tail follow?

Is there something weird about running live, or overlayfs that cripples tail -f? And any suggestions how to follow the log? (xwatch works ok, anything better or in terminal?)

---

I've tried running strace tail -f -s 1 testfile and here are the last couple lines of output, after it write(1,'s the existing couple lines of testfile:

write(1, "new1\n", 5new1
)                   = 5
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=22, ...}) = 0
fstatfs64(3, 84, {f_type=0x1021994, f_bsize=4096, f_blocks=968776, f_bfree=461437, f_bavail=461437, f_files=203469, f_ffree=190635, f_fsid={0, 0}, f_namelen=255, f_frsize=4096, f_flags=1056}) = 0
inotify_init()                          = 4
inotify_add_watch(4, "testfile", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF) = 1
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=22, ...}) = 0
read(4, 

Answer 1

tail uses inotify which does not work with overlayfs See this bug report and this discussion. @Xen2050 pointed out the ---disable-inotify switch to tail See this workaround

You could use apt-src to install the coreutils source, and recompile tail with -UHAVE_INOTIFY