tail - Man Page

• Show last 'count' lines in file: tail --lines count path/to/file
• Print a file from a specific line number: tail --lines +count path/to/file
• Print a specific count of bytes from the end of a given file: tail --bytes count path/to/file
• Print the last lines of a given file and keep reading it until Ctrl + C: tail --follow path/to/file
• Keep reading file until Ctrl + C, even if the file is inaccessible: tail --retry --follow path/to/file
• Show last 'num' lines in 'file' and refresh every 'n' seconds: tail --lines count --sleep-interval seconds --follow path/to/file

tldr.sh

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

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 skip NUM-1 lines at the start

--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; can be repeated to watch multiple processes

-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, R, Q. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

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 in a way that accommodates renaming, removal and creation.

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

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.

head(1)

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

collectd.conf(5), ctail(1), e2tail(1), fetchlog(1), head(1), ii(1), pmcd(1), pmdalogger(1), pmdasystemd(1), pmdaweblog(1), sdjournal(1), since(1), swatch(1), swatchdog(1), virt-tail(1).