`tail -f` intermittency

[dae3]

Hello,

I just wanted to report that `tail -f` - at least when running in the
background - doesn't always output the latest additions to the watched
file.

For example, I always have `tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log` running in
the background. I just discovered new (not necessarily recent) additions
to the 'error_log' file that were never reported by `tail`.  This has
happened to me several other times.


-----BEGIN VERSION INFO-----
~> tail --version
tail (GNU coreutils) 5.97
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim
Meyering.
~> 
------END VERSION INFO------


-- 
~> cat /etc/redhat-release && uname -a
Scientific Linux SL release 5.2 (Boron)
Linux acerrimo.local 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5 #1 SMP Tue Dec 16 06:50:02 EST 
2008 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux