tail(1)




NAME

     tail - deliver the last part of a file


SYNOPSIS

     /usr/bin/tail [ _ number [lbcr]] [file]

     /usr/bin/tail [-lbcr] [file]

     /usr/bin/tail [ _ number [lbcf]] [file]

     /usr/bin/tail [-lbcf] [file]

     /usr/xpg4/bin/tail  [-f  |  -r]   [-c number  |   -n number]
     [file]

     /usr/xpg4/bin/tail [ _ number

      [l | b | c]  [f]] [file]

     /usr/xpg4/bin/tail [ _ number [l]

      [f | r] ] [file]


DESCRIPTION

     The tail utility copies the named file to the standard  out-
     put  beginning  at  a designated place. If no file is named,
     the standard input is used.

     Copying begins at a point  in  the  file  indicated  by  the
     -cnumber, -nnumber, or _number options (if +number is speci-
     fied, begins at  distance  number  from  the  beginning;  if
     -number  is  specified, from the end of the input; if number
     is NULL, the value 10 is  assumed).  number  is  counted  in
     units  of lines or byte according to the -c  or  -n options,
     or lines, blocks, or bytes, according to the appended option
     l,  b,  or  c.  When  no units are specified, counting is by
     lines.


OPTIONS

     The following options are supported for  both  /usr/bin/tail
     and  /usr/xpg4/bin/tail.  The -r and -f options are mutually
     exclusive. If both are specified on the command line, the -f
     option will be ignored.

     -b    Units of blocks.

     -c    Units of bytes.

     -f    Follow. 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.

     -l    Units of lines.

     -r    Reverse. 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.

  /usr/xpg4/bin/tail
     The following options are supported  for  /usr/xpg4/bin/tail
     only:

     -c number
           The number option-argument must be a  decimal  integer
           whose  sign affects the location in the file, measured
           in bytes, to begin the copying:

           +     Copying starts relative to the beginning of  the
                 file.

           -     Copying starts relative to the end of the file.

           none  Copying starts relative to the end of the file.

           The origin for counting is 1; that is, -c+1 represents
           the first byte of the file, -c-1 the last.

     -n number
           Equivalent to -cnumber, except the  starting  location
           in the file is measured in lines instead of bytes. The
           origin for counting is 1. That is, -n+1 represents the
           first line of the file, -n-1 the last.


OPERANDS

     The following operand is supported:

     file  A path name of an input file. If no file operands  are
           specified, the standard input will be used.


USAGE

     See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of tail
     when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2
    **31 bytes).


EXAMPLES

     Example 1: Using the tail Command

     The following command 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.

     example% tail -f fred

     The next command will print the last 15 bytes  of  the  file
     fred,  followed  by  any  lines  that  are  appended to fred
     between the time tail is initiated and killed:

     example% tail -15cf fred


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect the execution of tail: LANG, LC_ALL,
     LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.


EXIT STATUS

     The following exit values are returned:

     0     Successful completion.

     >0    An error occurred.


ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

  /usr/bin/tail
     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | Enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

  /usr/xpg4/bin/tail
     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWxcu4                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | Enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Standard                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|


SEE ALSO

     cat(1),  head(1),  more(1),  pg(1),  dd(1M),  attributes(5),
     environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)


NOTES

     Piped tails relative to the end of the file are stored in  a
     buffer,  and  thus  are  limited in length. Various kinds of
     anomalous behavior may happen with character special files.


Man(1) output converted with man2html