tail(1)          (Directory and File Management Utilities)          tail(1)


   NAME
         tail - deliver the last part of a file

   SYNOPSIS
         tail [ + numberlbcr ] [ file ]
         tail [ -lbcr ] [ file ]
         tail [ + numberlbcf ] [ file ]
         tail [ -lbcf ] [ 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 used.

         Copying begins at distance +number from the beginning, or -number
         from the end of the input (if number is null, the value 10 is
         assumed).  Number is counted in units of lines, blocks, or
         characters, according to the appended option l, b, or c.  When no
         units are specified, counting is by lines.

         With the -f (follow) option, if the input file is not a pipe, the
         program will not terminate after the line of the input file has been
         copied, but will enter an endless loop, wherein it sleeps for a
         second and then attempts to read and copy further records from the
         input file.  Thus it may be used to monitor the growth of a file that
         is being written by some other process.  For example, the command:

               tail -f fred

         will print the last ten lines of the file fred, followed by any lines
         that are appended to fred between the time tail is initiated and
         killed.  As another example, the command:

               tail -15cf fred

         will print the last 15 characters of the file fred, followed by any
         lines that are appended to fred between the time tail is initiated
         and killed.

         The r option copies lines from the specified starting point in the
         file in reverse order.  The default for r is to print the entire file
         in reverse order.

         The r and f options are mutually exclusive.

   SEE ALSO
         cat(1), head(1), more(1), pg(1), tail(1).
         dd(1M) in the System Administrator's Reference Manual.

   NOTES
         Tails relative to the end of the file are stored in a buffer, and
         thus are limited in length.  Various kinds of anomalous behavior may


   7/91                                                                 Page 1

   tail(1)          (Directory and File Management Utilities)          tail(1)


         happen with character special files.

         The tail command will only tail the last 4096 bytes of a file
         regardless of its line count.

















































   Page 2                                                                 7/91