.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.43.3.
.TH TAIL "1" "March 2015" "GNU coreutils 8.23" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
tail \- output the last part of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B tail
[\fIOPTION\fR]... [\fIFILE\fR]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
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.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-bytes\fR=\fIK\fR
output the last K bytes; or use \fB\-c\fR +K to output
bytes starting with the Kth of each file
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-follow[=\fR{name|descriptor}]
output appended data as the file grows;
.IP
an absent option argument means 'descriptor'
.TP
\fB\-F\fR
same as \fB\-\-follow\fR=\fIname\fR \fB\-\-retry\fR
.TP
\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-lines\fR=\fIK\fR
output the last K lines, instead of the last 10;
or use \fB\-n\fR +K to output starting with the Kth
.TP
\fB\-\-max\-unchanged\-stats\fR=\fIN\fR
with \fB\-\-follow\fR=\fIname\fR, reopen a FILE which has not
.IP
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);
with inotify, this option is rarely useful
.TP
\fB\-\-pid\fR=\fIPID\fR
with \fB\-f\fR, terminate after process ID, PID dies
.TP
\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR, \fB\-\-silent\fR
never output headers giving file names
.TP
\fB\-\-retry\fR
keep trying to open a file if it is inaccessible
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-sleep\-interval\fR=\fIN\fR
with \fB\-f\fR, sleep for approximately N seconds
(default 1.0) between iterations;
with inotify and \fB\-\-pid\fR=\fIP\fR, check process P at
least once every N seconds
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
always output headers giving file names
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.PP
If the first character of K (the number of bytes or lines) is a '+',
print beginning with the Kth item from the start of each file, otherwise,
print the last K items in the file.  K may have a multiplier suffix:
b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024,
GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.
.PP
With \fB\-\-follow\fR (\fB\-f\fR), 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 \fB\-\-follow\fR=\fIname\fR in that case.  That causes tail to track the
named file in a way that accommodates renaming, removal and creation.
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor,
and Jim Meyering.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
Report tail translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/tail>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) tail invocation\(aq