From 8dd4d7806981457995a290f79fb0291a6c60ad8f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Christopher Dryden <christopher.paul.dryden@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2026 07:59:42 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] tail: fix -F to properly track symlinks with changing targets

---
 src/uu/tail/src/follow/watch.rs |  7 +++++++
 tests/by-util/test_tail.rs      | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 43 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/uu/tail/src/follow/watch.rs b/src/uu/tail/src/follow/watch.rs
index b195ab0a47a..363449ae7a2 100644
--- a/src/uu/tail/src/follow/watch.rs
+++ b/src/uu/tail/src/follow/watch.rs
@@ -277,6 +277,10 @@ impl Observer {
                             // If `path` is not a tailable file, add its parent to `Watcher`.
                             watcher_rx
                                 .watch(path.parent().unwrap(), RecursiveMode::NonRecursive)?;
+                            // Add symlinks to orphans for retry polling (target may not exist)
+                            if path.is_symlink() {
+                                self.orphans.push(path);
+                            }
                         } else {
                             // If there is no parent, add `path` to `orphans`.
                             self.orphans.push(path);
@@ -374,6 +378,9 @@ impl Observer {
                         }
                     }
                     self.files.update_metadata(event_path, Some(new_md));
+                } else if event_path.is_symlink() && settings.retry {
+                    self.files.reset_reader(event_path);
+                    self.orphans.push(event_path.clone());
                 }
             }
             EventKind::Remove(RemoveKind::File | RemoveKind::Any)
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_tail.rs b/tests/by-util/test_tail.rs
index 9d4a270e2b2..852bb1d9ff7 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_tail.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_tail.rs
@@ -5149,3 +5149,39 @@ fn test_debug_flag_with_inotify() {
         .with_all_output()
         .stderr_contains("tail: using notification mode");
 }
+
+#[test]
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn test_follow_dangling_symlink() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.symlink_file("target", "link");
+    let mut p = ucmd
+        .args(&["-s.1", "--max-unchanged-stats=1", "-F", "link"])
+        .run_no_wait();
+    p.delay(500);
+    at.write("target", "X\n");
+    p.delay(500);
+    p.kill().make_assertion().with_all_output().stdout_is("X\n");
+}
+
+#[test]
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn test_follow_symlink_target_change() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.write("t1", "A\n");
+    at.symlink_file("t1", "link");
+    let mut p = ucmd
+        .args(&["-s.1", "--max-unchanged-stats=1", "-F", "link"])
+        .run_no_wait();
+    p.delay(500);
+    at.remove("link");
+    at.symlink_file("t2", "link");
+    p.delay(500);
+    at.write("t2", "B\n");
+    p.delay(500);
+    p.kill()
+        .make_assertion()
+        .with_all_output()
+        .stdout_contains("A\n")
+        .stdout_contains("B\n");
+}