[erlang-questions] size of an open file

[Michael McDaniel]

 I occasionally check the 'file modified' timestamp (file:read_file_info/1)
 and if it is later than the last time I saw data from a read, I close/open
 the file for further reads.  I use a timer (timer:apply_after/4) which gets
 reset each time I read data.  If timer expires (i.e. have not read data in
 N amount of time) a fun is run which does the check.  Good enough for my
 current use, maybe not for yours (you have to know how often you are 
 expecting new data).
 

~Michael


On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:06:07AM +0200, Bengt Kleberg wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> If I understand you correctly you have the resources to do the
> following:
> open the file and start to read from it. When you hit eof you wait a
> while and try again. After some time of getting nothing but eof you can
> test if the current position is bigger than the file size of the
> original file name. When this happens you close the current file and
> open the original file name. Repeat.
> 
> This will fail if the current file is (re)moved at position 1000, and
> the new file with the original name manages to fill up to exactly 1000
> before you test its size. Given a program that rapidly fills many small
> files with exactly the same content that is not unlikely.
> If you have that scenario you need to know how fast the file fills so
> that you can test its size before it manages to become full.
> 
> 
> bengt
> 
> On Thu, 2008-05-15 at 16:55 +1000, jm wrote:
> > 
> > Bengt Kleberg wrote:
> > > Greetings,
> > >
> > > What are your requirements?
> > > Do you have enough time/cpu/etc to open/close the file when reading the
> > > tail part of it?
> > >
> > >
> > > bengt
> > >
> > >   
> > 
> > This started as a programming exercise while I had nothing better to do 
> > waiting for a quote from a vendor. The idea was to get more experience 
> > with erlang by writing something which normally has side effects and to 
> > use some of the functions which I've not used in erlang yet.  I decided 
> > to try and imitate unix's "tail -F" to some extent, ie tail with follow 
> > file. There isn't any requirements beyond that. What I have at the 
> > moment reads in from a file and breaks it into lines. There are two 
> > version one which returns the lines and continutation info and another 
> > which uses lists:foreach to call a passed in function on each line.
> > 
> > The next step is to add the follow file functionality. Speed is not 
> > important. I may us it later in a program. If that happens then I'd be 
> > reading from multiple files similtaneously, so concurrentency may be.
> > 
> > 
> > Jeff.
> > _______________________________________________
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