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.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -c, --bytes=K
- output the last K bytes; alternatively, use -c +K to
output bytes starting with the Kth of each file
- -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
- output appended data as the file grows; -f,
--follow, and --follow=descriptor are equivalent
- -F
- same as --follow=name --retry
- -n, --lines=K
- output the last K lines, instead of the last 10; or use
-n +K to output lines starting with the Kth
- --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). With
inotify, this option is rarely useful.
- --pid=PID
- with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies
- -q, --quiet, --silent
- never output headers giving file names
- --retry
- keep trying to open a file even when it is or becomes
inaccessible; useful when following by name, i.e., with
--follow=name
- -s, --sleep-interval=N
- with -f, sleep for approximately N seconds (default
1.0) between iterations. With inotify and --pid=P, check
process P at least once every N 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 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.
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 in a way that accommodates renaming,
removal and creation.
AUTHOR¶
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report tail bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <
http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report tail translation bugs to <
http://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL
version 3 or later <
http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO
WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
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 coreutils 'tail invocation'
should give you access to the complete manual.