TAIL(C)                  XENIX System V                   TAIL(C)



     Name
          tail - Delivers the last part of a file.

     Syntax
          tail [ _[number][lbc] [ -f ] ] [ file ]

     Description
          tail copies the named file to the standard output beginning
          at a designated place.  If no file is named, the standard
          input is used.

          Copying begins at distance +number from the beginning, or
          -number from the end of the input (if number is null, the
          value 10 is assumed).  Number is counted in units of lines,
          blocks, or characters, according to the appended option l,
          b, or c.  When no units are specified, counting is by lines.

          With the -f (``follow'') option, if the input file is not a
          pipe, the program will not terminate after the line of the
          input file has been copied, but will enter an endless loop,
          wherein it sleeps for a second and then attempts to read and
          copy further records from the input file.  Thus it may be
          used to monitor the growth of a file that is being written
          by some other process.  For example, the command:

               tail -f file

          will print the last ten lines of file, followed by any lines
          that are appended to file between the time tail is initiated
          and killed.

     See Also
          dd(C)

     Notes
          Tails relative to the end of the file are kept in a buffer,
          and thus are limited in length.  Unpredictable results can
          occur if character special files are ``tailed''.

















     Page 1                                           (printed 8/7/87)