TAIL(1) TAIL(1)
NAME
tail - deliver the last part of a file
SYNOPSIS
tail [ [+-]number[lbc][rf] ] [ file ]
tail [ -fr ] [ -n nlines ] [ -c ncharacters ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
Tail copies the named file to the standard output beginning
at a designated place. If no file is named, the standard
input is copied.
Copying begins at position +number measured from the begin-
ning, or -number from the end of the input. Number is
counted in lines, 1K blocks or characters, according to the
appended flag `l', `b', or `c'. Default is -10l (ten ell).
The further flag `r' causes tail to print lines from the end
of the file in reverse order; `f' (follow) causes tail,
after printing to the end, to keep watch and print further
data as it appears.
The second syntax is that promulgated by POSIX, where the
numbers of lines (-n) or characters (-c) are specified sepa-
rately as signed integers. Note than an unsigned value is
treated as negative, ie '-n 2' is equivalent to '-n -2'.
EXAMPLES
tail file
Print the last 10 lines of a file.
tail +0f file
Print a file, and continue to watch data accumulate as
it grows.
According to custom, option +number counts lines from
1, and counts blocks and characters from 0.
tail -nlines +3 file
Print a file starting at line number 3
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