[Tutor] Tail -f problem

[Alberto Troiano]

Hey

I'm still working with this RADIUS system over Red Hat 9.0, mysql 3.23 and 
python 2.2.2

I ran to another problem.....I have a file that is written by the RADIUS 
server (for those who don't know RADIUS is an authentication Service). The 
file contains the detail of the RADIUS, the server writes the STOP and START 
signals to this file....below is the detail of the file.
What I need to do is a program that check when the file gets an input and 
analyze only the text that has entered...I thought about tail-f 
/var/log/radacct/max/detail but this thing opens a console and I won't end 
but how can I get the output of the command to python..
This is one of two solutions....the other would be Upgrade the MySQL Server 
to version 4.1.11 which I don't have idea how to....

file desc
-----------
Date
      User-Name
      NAS-IP-ADDRESS
      and a long list of variables

-----------
end of file desc

I know the second option has nothing to do with this forum but if anyone 
knows of any manual to upgrade MySQL over Linux Red HAt I would appreciate

Thanks in advanced

Alberto