update readme, comments; gofmt

README.md

@@ -11,23 +11,17 @@ for line := range t.Lines {
 
 See [API documentation](http://godoc.org/github.com/ActiveState/tail).
 
+## Log rotation
+
+Tail comes with full support for truncation/move detection as it is
+designed to work with log rotation tools.
+
 ## Installing
 
-    go get github.com/ActiveState/tail
+    go get github.com/ActiveState/tail/...
-
-## Building
-
-To build and test the package,
-
-    make test
-
-To build the toy command-line program `gotail`,
-
-    cd cmd/gotail
-    make
-    ./gotail -h
 
 ## TODO
 
-* Support arbitrary values for `Location`
+* Arbitrary values for `Location`
+* `Location` could be specified in both lines and bytes metrics.
 

tail.go

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ type Line struct {
 	Time time.Time
 }
 
-// Tail configuration
+// Config is used to specify how a file must be tailed.
 type Config struct {
 	Location    int  // Tail from last N lines (tail -n)
 	Follow      bool // Continue looking for new lines (tail -f)
@@ -45,10 +45,10 @@ type Tail struct {
 	tomb.Tomb // provides: Done, Kill, Dying
 }
 
-// TailFile begins tailing the file with the specified
+// TailFile begins tailing the file. Output stream is made available
-// configuration. Output stream is made available via the `Tail.Lines`
+// via the `Tail.Lines` channel. To handle errors during tailing,
-// channel. To handle errors during tailing, invoke the `Wait` method
+// invoke the `Wait` or `Err` method after finishing reading from the
-// after finishing reading from the `Lines` channel.
+// `Lines` channel.
 func TailFile(filename string, config Config) (*Tail, error) {
 	if !(config.Location == 0 || config.Location == -1) {
 		panic("only 0/-1 values are supported for Location.")
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ func (tail *Tail) tailFileSync() {
 	for {
 		line, err := tail.readLine()
 
-		switch(err) {
+		switch err {
 		case nil:
 			if line != nil {
 				tail.sendLine(line)
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ func (tail *Tail) tailFileSync() {
 			// available. Wait strategy is based on the `tail.watcher`
 			// implementation (inotify or polling).
 			err := tail.waitForChanges()
-			if err != nil  {
+			if err != nil {
 				if err != ErrStop {
 					tail.Kill(err)
 				}
@@ -184,8 +184,8 @@ func (tail *Tail) tailFileSync() {
 }
 
 // waitForChanges waits until the file has been appended, deleted,
-// moved or truncated. When moved, deleted or truncated - the file
+// moved or truncated. When moved or deleted - the file will be
-// will be re-opened if ReOpen is true.
+// reopened if ReOpen is true. Truncated files are always reopened.
 func (tail *Tail) waitForChanges() error {
 	if tail.changes == nil {
 		st, err := tail.file.Stat()
@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ func (tail *Tail) waitForChanges() error {
 
 	select {
 	case <-tail.changes.Modified:
+		return nil
 	case <-tail.changes.Deleted:
 		tail.changes = nil
 		if tail.ReOpen {
@@ -216,7 +217,7 @@ func (tail *Tail) waitForChanges() error {
 		// Always reopen truncated files (Follow is true)
 		log.Printf("Re-opening truncated file %s ...", tail.Filename)
 		if err := tail.reopen(); err != nil {
-				return err
+			return err
 		}
 		log.Printf("Successfully reopened truncated %s", tail.Filename)
 		tail.reader = bufio.NewReader(tail.file)
@@ -224,7 +225,7 @@ func (tail *Tail) waitForChanges() error {
 	case <-tail.Dying():
 		return ErrStop
 	}
-	return nil
+	panic("unreachable")
 }
 
 // sendLine sends the line(s) to Lines channel, splitting longer lines

watch/watch.go

@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@ import (
 
 // FileWatcher monitors file-level events.
 type FileWatcher interface {
-	// BlockUntilExists blocks until the missing file comes into
+	// BlockUntilExists blocks until the file comes into existence.
-	// existence. If the file already exists, returns immediately.
 	BlockUntilExists(tomb.Tomb) error
 
-	// ChangeEvents returns a channel of events corresponding to the
+	// ChangeEvents reports on changes to a file, be it modification,
-	// times the file is ready to be read. The channel will be closed
+	// deletion, renames or truncations. Returned FileChanges group of
-	// if the file gets deleted, renamed or truncated.
+	// channels will be closed, thus become unusable, after a deletion
+	// or truncation event.
 	ChangeEvents(tomb.Tomb, os.FileInfo) *FileChanges
 }