[Bug 1169580] [NEW] "tail -f file" with "mv file file2" does not show changes to file2

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The manual page of tail states the following:

  With  --follow  (-f),  tail  defaults to following the file descriptor,
  which means that even if a tail'ed file is renamed, tail will  continue
  to  track  its  end.

However, the following command sequence does not behave like that:

touch file
tail -f file &
mv file file2
echo "text" >> file2

In this case, tail does not show any output. However, tail shows the
"text" properly when run on a Solaris server. This indicates that tail
does behave like its manual page states in some versions.


System version: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
touch version: touch (GNU coreutils) 8.13
tail version: tail (GNU coreutils) 8.13
mv version: mv (GNU coreutils) 8.13
bash version: GNU bash, version 4.2.24(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)


On the Solaris server that behaves correctly, each are '(GNU coreutils) 6.7' except bash which is 'GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release (sparc-sun-solaris2.11)'

** Affects: coreutils (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: bot-comment
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"tail -f file" with "mv file file2" does not show changes to file2
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1169580
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