Korn Shell Programming by Example

tail

Official Description

Displays the tail end of a file.

Syntax

tail [-f  | -r] [-c number | -n number] [file]

Options

-c number requests that the output start displaying at a specified character number.

-f requests that the tail function does not end after it copies the last line. Can monitor file content growth.

-n number requestst that the output start displaying at specified line number.

-r reverses the display order.

Oddities

The default is to show the last 10 lines of a file.

Example

$ tail -n 3 buzz             # Shows last 3 lines of file
do
x=17
done
$
$ tail -c 3 buzz             # Shows last 3 chars of file
ne
$