TAIL(1) DOMAIN/IX Reference Manual (SYS5) TAIL(1)
NAME
tail - deliver the last part of a file
USAGE
tail [ +- [ number ][ lbc [ f ] ] ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
Tail copies the named file to the standard output beginning
at a designated place. If you do not specify a filename,
tail uses the standard input.
Copying begins at distance +number from the beginning, or
-number from the end of the input. If you fail to specify a
number, tail assumes it to be the value 10. Number is
counted in units of lines, blocks, or characters, according
to the appended option l, b, or c. When you not specify
units, counting is by lines.
If the -f (``follow'') option is used, and the input file is
not a pipe, the program does not terminate after the line of
the input file has been copied. Instead, it enters an end-
less loop, where it sleeps for a second and then attempts to
read and copy further records from the input file. Thus,
tail may be used to monitor the growth of a file being writ-
ten by some other process.
EXAMPLE
To print the last 10 lines of file1, followed by any lines
appended to it between the time tail is initiated and
killed, use the following:
tail -f file1
CAUTIONS
Tails relative to the end of the file are treasured up in a
buffer, and thus are limited in length.
Various kinds of anomalous behavior may happen with charac-
ter special files.
RELATED INFORMATION
dd (1).
Printed 6/10/85 TAIL-1