bsd man page for tail

TAIL(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   TAIL(1)

NAME
       tail - deliver the last part of a file

SYNOPSIS
       tail _number[___][__] [ 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.  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.

       Specifying r causes tail to print lines from the end of the file in reverse order.  The default for r is to print the entire file this way.
       Specifying f causes tail to not quit at end of file, but rather wait and try to read repeatedly in hopes that the file will grow.

SEE ALSO
       dd(1)

BUGS
       Tails relative to the end of the file are treasured up in a buffer, and thus are limited in length.

       Various kinds of anomalous behavior may happen with character special files.

4th Berkeley Distribution					   March 6, 1986							   TAIL(1)