Unix tail equivalent command in Windows Powershell

Use the -wait parameter with Get-Content, which displays lines as they are added to the file. This feature was present in PowerShell v1, but for some reason not documented well in v2.

Here is an example

Get-Content -Path "C:\scripts\test.txt" -Wait

Once you run this, update and save the file and you will see the changes on the console.

For completeness I'll mention that Powershell 3.0 now has a -Tail flag on Get-Content

Get-Content ./log.log -Tail 10

gets the last 10 lines of the file

Get-Content ./log.log -Wait -Tail 10

gets the last 10 lines of the file and waits for more

Also, for those *nix users, note that most systems alias cat to Get-Content, so this usually works

cat ./log.log -Tail 10

As of PowerShell version 3.0, the Get-Content cmdlet has a -Tail parameter that should help. See the technet library online help for Get-Content.