| TAIL(1) | General Commands Manual | TAIL(1) |
tail - deliver the last part of a file
tail [ [+-]number[lbc][rf] ] [ file ]
tail [ -fr ] [ -n nlines ] [ -c ncharacters ] [ file ]
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 beginning, or -number from the end of the input. Number is counted in lines, 1K blocks or characters, according to the appended flag or Default is -10l (ten ell).
The further flag causes tail to print lines from the end of the file in reverse order; (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 separately as signed integers. Note than an unsigned value is treated as negative, ie '-n 2' is equivalent to '-n -2'.