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.

       --retry
	      keep trying to open a file even if it is inaccessible when tail
	      starts  or if it becomes inaccessible later -- useful only with
	      -f

       -c, --bytes=N
	      output the last N bytes

       -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=N
	      output the last N lines, instead of the last 10

       --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)

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

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

       -s, --sleep-interval=S
	      with  -f,	 sleep	for  approximately  S  seconds	(default 1.0)
	      between iterations.

       -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 N (the number of bytes or lines) is  a	 '+',
       print  beginning with the Nth item from the start of each file, other-
       wise, print the last N items in the file.  N  may  have	a  multiplier
       suffix: b 512, k 1024, m 1024*1024.

       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
       descriptor  (e.g.,  log	rotation).   Use  --follow=name in that case.
       That causes tail to track the named file by reopening it	 periodically
       to see if it has been removed and recreated by some other program.

AUTHOR
       Written by Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Ian Lance Taylor, and Jim Mey-
       ering.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to .

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This is free software; see the source for copying  conditions.	There
       is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR PURPOSE.

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

       should give you access to the complete manual.



tail (coreutils) 5.2.1		 August 2006			      TAIL(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. last
2. file
3. as
4. which
5. display
6. free
7. info
8. at