Using Multitail to view multiple logs, all at the very same time

As I'm going through the motions of installing and running IBM BPM Advanced 8.0.1.1 on Linux, I wanted a way to keep multiple log files open all at the very same time.

I harked back to an episode of This Week In Lotus, on which I appeared back in 2010, when I recommended the use of Multitail for that precise purpose.

I re-visited the Multitail site here - http://www.vanheusden.com/multitail/index.php - and, from there, found a link to a set of RPMs that someone has kindly pulled together here. This was the version that I downloaded: -

multitail-5.2.9-1.el3.rf.x86_64.rpm

which I then installed ( as root ): -

$ rpm -ivh multitail-5.2.9-1.el3.rf.x86_64.rpm 

and fired it up against my four individual log files: -

$ multitail -i /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/PCN1Profile/logs/PCSR011.AppTarget/SystemOut.log -i /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/PCN1Profile/logs/PCSR011.Messaging/SystemOut.log -i /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/PCN1Profile/logs/PCSR011.Support/SystemOut.log -i /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/PCN1Profile/logs/PCSR011.WebApp/SystemOut.log 

with the following result: -

One of my colleagues pointed out that I could further reduce the command using a wildcard: -

$  multitail -i /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/BAMN1Profile/logs/BAMSR011.*/SystemOut.log