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Manpage of TAIL
TAIL
Section: FSF (1)
Updated: March 2001
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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for it will be withdrawn.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
-
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Time: 13:06:46 GMT, January 16, 2002