tail(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    tail(1)



NAME
     tail - deliver the last part of a file

SYNOPSIS
     tail [ + number lbcr ] [ file ]
     tail [ -lbcr ] [ file ]
     tail [ + number lbcf ] [ file ]
     tail [ -lbcf ] [ 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 fred

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

          tail -15cf fred

     will print the last 15 characters of the file fred, followed
     by any lines that are appended to fred between the time tail
     is initiated and killed.

     The r option copies lines from the specified starting  point
     in the file in reverse order.  The default for r is to print
     the entire file in reverse order.

     The r and f options are mutually exclusive.

SEE ALSO
     cat(1), head(1), more(1), pg(1), tail(1).
     dd(1M) in the System Administrator's Reference Manual.

NOTES
     Tails relative to the end  of  the  file  are  stored  in  a



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tail(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    tail(1)



     buffer,  and  thus  are limited in length.  Various kinds of
     anomalous behavior may happen with character special  files.
     The  tail  command  will  only tail the last 4096 bytes of a
     file regardless of its line count.



















































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