tail(1) CLIX tail(1)
NAME
tail - Delivers the last part of a file
SYNOPSIS
tail [+[number] [-lbc] [-f] [file]
FLAGS
-lbc The number variable is counted in units of lines, blocks, or
characters according to the appended flag, -l,-b, or -c.
-f With the ``follow'' flag, if the input file is not a pipe, the
command 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 (see EXAMPLES).
DESCRIPTION
The tail command copies the named file to stdout beginning at a designated
place. If no file is named, stdin 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). If the
user does not specify units with the -l, -b, or -c flag, counting is by
lines (the -l default).
EXAMPLES
1. To display the last ten lines of the file fred, followed by any lines
that are apppended to fred, between the time tail is initiated and
killed, enter the following:
tail -f fred
2. If users want to display the last 15 characters of a file, say fred,
followed by any lines that are appended to fred, between the time tail
is initiated and killed, they can use the following:
tail -15cf fred
NOTES
Tails specified at the end of the file are stored in a buffer, and thus
are limited in length. Various kinds of anomalous behavior may happen
with character special files.
2/94 - Intergraph Corporation 1
tail(1) CLIX tail(1)
CAUTION
The tail command will only tail the last 4096 bytes of a file regardless
of its line count.
EXIT VALUES
The tail command exits with a value of 0 if successful and a value of 2 if
not successful.
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: dd(8)
2 Intergraph Corporation - 2/94