TAIL(1) COMMAND REFERENCE TAIL(1)
NAME
tail - copy the last part of a file to standard output
SYNOPSIS
tail [ +[number][lbc][fr] ] [ filename ]
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.
Specifying r causes tail to print lines from the end-of-file
in reverse order. The default for r is to print the entire
file this way. Specifying f causes tail to not quit at
end-of-file, but rather wait and try to read repeatedly in
hopes that the file will grow. If both r and f are given,
the f is ignored.
OPTIONS
-f Causes tail to not quit at end-of-file, but rather wait
and try to read repeatedly in hopes that the file will
grow.
-r Causes tail to print lines from the end of the file in
reverse order.
+number
Copying begins at distance +number from the beginning of
the input.
-number
Copying begins at distance -number from the end of the
input. Number is counted in units of lines, 1024-byte
blocks or characters, according to the appended option l,
b or c, respectively. When no units are specified,
counting is by lines. When the size argument is not
specified, the last 10 lines are copied.
EXAMPLES
The following example reads the output from nroff(1) which
is being written to the file text.out. The last 30 lines of
output are displayed first, and then all subsequent output
is displayed.
nroff file > text.out&
tail -30lf text.out
This example builds a new copy of the file example
containing all but the first 29 lines of the original copy.
Printed 4/6/89 1
TAIL(1) COMMAND REFERENCE TAIL(1)
tail +30 example > tmp
mv tmp example
RETURN VALUE
[NO_ERRS] Command completed without error.
[USAGE] Incorrect command line syntax. Execution
terminated.
[P_ERR] A system error occurred. Execution
terminated. See intro(2) for more
information on system errors.
CAVEATS
When the -number or -r options are used, a maximum of 16384
characters can be copied.
Various kinds of anomalous behavior may happen with
character special files.
SEE ALSO
dd(1) and head(1).
Printed 4/6/89 2
%%index%%
na:240,106;
sy:346,256;
de:602,923;
op:1525,991;
ex:2516,527;3355,59;
rv:3414,444;
ca:3858,295;
se:4153,149;
%%index%%000000000142