Content-type: text/html Manpage of TAIL

TAIL

Section: FSF (1)
Updated: March 2001
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

tail - output the last part of files  

SYNOPSIS

tail [OPTION]... [FILE]...  

DESCRIPTION

Print the last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

--retry
keep trying to open a file even if it is inaccessible when tail starts or if it becomes inaccessible later -- useful only with -f
-c, --bytes=N
output the last N bytes
-f, --follow[={name|descriptor}] output appended data as the file grows;
-f, --follow, and --follow=descriptor are equivalent
-n, --lines=N
output the last N lines, instead of the last 10
--max-unchanged-stats=N
with --follow=name, reopen a FILE which has not
changed size after N (default 5) iterations to see if it has been unlinked or renamed (this is the usual case of rotated log files)
--pid=PID
with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies
-q, --quiet, --silent
never output headers giving file names
-s, --sleep-interval=S
with -f, each iteration lasts approximately S (default 1) seconds
-v, --verbose
always output headers giving file names
--help
display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit

If the first character of N (the number of bytes or lines) is a `+', print beginning with the Nth item from the start of each file, otherwise, print the last N items in the file. N may have a multiplier suffix: b for 512, k for 1024, m for 1048576 (1 Meg). A first OPTION of -VALUE or +VALUE is treated like -n VALUE or -n +VALUE unless VALUE has one of the [bkm] suffix multipliers, in which case it is treated like -c VALUE or -c +VALUE. Warning: a first option of +VALUE is obsolescent, and support for it will be withdrawn.

With --follow (-f), tail defaults to following the file descriptor, which means that even if a tail'ed file is renamed, tail will continue to track its end. This default behavior is not desirable when you really want to track the actual name of the file, not the file descriptor (e.g., log rotation). Use --follow=name in that case. That causes tail to track the named file by reopening it periodically to see if it has been removed and recreated by some other program.  

AUTHOR

Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <bug-textutils@gnu.org>.  

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for tail is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and tail programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info tail

should give you access to the complete manual.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 13:06:46 GMT, January 16, 2002