x11r4 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=[+]NUM
              output the last NUM bytes; or use -c +NUM to output starting with byte NUM of each file

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

              an absent option argument means 'descriptor'

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

       -n, --lines=[+]NUM
              output the last NUM lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n +NUM to output starting with line NUM

       --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 if it is inaccessible

       -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

       -z, --zero-terminated
              line delimiter is NUL, not newline

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       NUM  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
       GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report tail translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2017 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
       head(1)

       Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/tail>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) tail invocation'

GNU coreutils 8.28                                                 January 2018                                                            TAIL(1)