Ubuntu Unleashed

We all have various log files on our Ubuntu system, and sometimes it is nice to be able to easily view a log file within a tty. Here is a simple howto, to create a tty user that's only purpose is to watch a log file
First lets create the logging script after sudo -s:
cat >>/usr/bin/logwatch
Paste this, then control-c when its pasted in the terminal, alternatively you can use a text editor..
#! /bin/bash
watch tail -n 80 /var/log/messages
Note: You can replace /var/log/messages with any log you choose, like a firewall log for instance.
Make /var/log/messages Readable and our script executable, for this I'll use chmod:
chmod 644 /var/log/messages
chmod +x /usr/bin/logwatch
Now append /usr/bin/logwatch to /etc/shells then save/exit
gedit /etc/shells

Now lets create the user that we can login via the TTY
adduser logwatch --shell /usr/bin/logwatch
Set a password, like "logwatch"

Now lets try this out, all you need to do now is simply press ALT-CTRL-F1 or any other TTY from F1-F6 then login as "logwatch" with password "logwatch", what will happen is the user will be logged into our /usr/bin/logwatch script and only be able to watch the log, so we can cycle between tty's and X