debian man page for tail

TAIL(1) 							   User Commands							   TAIL(1)

NAME
       tail - output the last part of files

SYNOPSIS
       tail [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       Print  the  last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output.  With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name.  With
       no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -c, --bytes=K
	      output the last K bytes; alternatively, use -c +K to output bytes starting with the Kth of each file

       -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
	      output appended data as the file grows; -f, --follow, and --follow=descriptor are equivalent

       -F     same as --follow=name --retry

       -n, --lines=K
	      output the last K lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n +K to output lines starting with the Kth

       --max-unchanged-stats=N
	      with --follow=name, reopen a FILE which has not changed size after N (default 5) iterations to  see  if  it  has	been  unlinked	or
	      renamed (this is the usual case of rotated log files).  With inotify, this option is rarely useful.

       --pid=PID
	      with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies

       -q, --quiet, --silent
	      never output headers giving file names

       --retry
	      keep trying to open a file even when it is or becomes inaccessible; useful when following by name, i.e., with --follow=name

       -s, --sleep-interval=N
	      with  -f,  sleep	for  approximately N seconds (default 1.0) between iterations.	With inotify and --pid=P, check process P at least
	      once every N seconds.

       -v, --verbose
	      always output headers giving file names

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

       If the first character of K (the number of bytes or lines) is a `+', print beginning with the Kth item from the start of each file,  other-
       wise,  print  the  last	K  items  in  the  file.   K  may  have a multiplier suffix: b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, GB
       1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

       With --follow (-f), tail defaults to following the file descriptor, which means that even if a tail'ed file is renamed, tail will  continue
       to  track its end.  This default behavior is not desirable when you really want to track the actual name of the file, not the file descrip-
       tor (e.g., log rotation).  Use --follow=name in that case.  That causes tail to track the named file in a way that  accommodates  renaming,
       removal and creation.

AUTHOR
       Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report tail bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report tail translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       The  full documentation for tail is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and tail programs are properly installed at your site, the
       command

	      info coreutils 'tail invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU coreutils 8.12.197-032bb					  September 2011							   TAIL(1)