TAIL(1) User Commands TAIL(1)
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=[+]NUM
output the last NUM bytes; or use -c +NUM to output starting
with byte NUM of each file
-f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
output appended data as the file grows;
an absent option argument means 'descriptor'
-F same as --follow=name --retry
-n, --lines=[+]NUM
output the last NUM lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n
+NUM to output starting with line NUM
--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 if it is inaccessible
-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
-z, --zero-terminated
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
NUM 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. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.
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 re-
ally 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, re-
moval and creation.
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Mey-
ering.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://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
head(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/tail>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) tail invocation'
GNU coreutils 8.32 February 2024 TAIL(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Thu Jan 23 07:53:09 CET 2025.