feature request for tail program - allow directories in watch list for -f

[John Macdonald]

One feature that has long been a component of the xtail program that has 
not yet been added to GNU tail is following directories.

The command:

   xtail -f dir

acts much like "xtail -f dir/*" except that it watches the directory and 
when a new file is created the new file is added to the list of files 
being followed.

This feature is extremely valuable when log files are rotated not by mv, 
but by simply opening the file with a timestamp as part of the name.  
(Web apps have to open the log file for each instance anyhow, for example.)

The original author of xtail recently wrote in a blog that I saw a few 
days ago that he no longer maintains xtail because GNU tail had all of 
the features from xtail - he was mistaken about the word "all".  :-)