1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1991 Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 6.\" 7.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 8.\" 9.\" @(#)tail.1 6.6 (Berkeley) 06/27/91 10.\" 11.Dd 12.Dt TAIL 1 13.Os BSD 4 14.Sh NAME 15.Nm tail 16.Nd deliver the last part of a file 17.Sh SYNOPSIS 18.Nm tail 19.Oo Cm \\*(Pm Ns Ar number 20.Op Ns Cm lbc Op Ns Cm fr 21.Oc 22.Op Ar file 23.Sh DESCRIPTION 24The 25.Nm tail 26utility copies its input file to the standard output 27beginning at a designated place. 28The argument 29.Ar number 30is counted in 31units of blocks, characters or lines (default), 32according to the appended option suffixes 33.Cm b , c 34and 35.Cm l . 36Copying begins at the point in the file indicated by the 37.Cm \\*(Pm Ns Ar number 38option, where 39.Cm + Ns Ar number 40is a positive offset relative to the beginning of the file 41and 42.Cm \&- Ns Ar number 43is a negative offset relative to the end of the file or standard 44input. 45.Pp 46Appended options: 47.Bl -tag -width Ds 48.It Cm b 49The argument 50.Ar number 51refers to blocks. 52.It Cm c 53The argument 54.Ar number 55refers to characters (bytes). 56.It Cm f 57Specifying 58.Cm f 59causes 60.Nm tail 61to not quit at end of file, but rather wait and try to read repeatedly 62in hopes that the file will grow. 63.It Cm l 64The argument 65.Ar number 66refers to line. 67.It Cm r 68Lines are printed from 69.Ar file 70in reverse order. 71The default for 72.Ar r 73is to print the entire file this way. 74.El 75.Pp 76The 77.Nm tail 78utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. 79.Sh SEE ALSO 80.Xr dd 1 81.Sh BUGS 82The behaviour of 83.Nm tail 84on binary or special files is unpredictable. 85.Sh HISTORY 86A 87.Nm 88command appeared in 89.At v7 . 90