Linux Pocket Guide

Name

tail [options] [files] — coreutils

Synopsis

/usr/bin stdin stdout - file -- opt --help --version

The tail command prints the last 10 lines of a file, and does other tricks as well.

$ tail myfile

Useful options
-N	Print the last N lines of the file instead of 10.
-n N
+N	Print all lines except the first N.
-c N	Print the last N bytes of the file.
-f	Keep the file open, and whenever lines are appended to the file, print them. This is extremely useful. Add the --retry option if the file doesn’t exist yet, but you want to wait for it to exist.
-q	Quiet mode: when processing more than one file, don’t print a banner above each file. Normally tail prints a banner containing the filename.