1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1991 Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" @(#)tail.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 04/22/91 5.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 6.\" 7.\" @(#)tail.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 04/22/91 8.\" 9.Dd 10.Dt TAIL 1 11.Os BSD 4 12.Sh NAME 13.Nm tail 14.Nd deliver the last part of a file 15.Sh SYNOPSIS 16.Nm tail 17.Oo Cm \\*(Pm Ns Ar number 18.Op Ns Cm lbc Op Ns Cm fr 19.Oc 20.Op Ar file 21.Sh DESCRIPTION 22The 23.Nm tail 24utility copies its input file to the standard output 25beginning at a designated place. 26The argument 27.Ar number 28is counted in 29units of blocks, characters or lines (default), 30according to the appended option suffixes 31.Cm b , c 32and 33.Cm l . 34Copying begins at the point in the file indicated by the 35.Cm \\*(Pm Ns Ar number 36option, where 37.Cm + Ns Ar number 38is a positive offset relative to the beginning of the file 39and 40.Cm \&- Ns Ar number 41is a negative offset relative to the end of the file or standard 42input. 43.Pp 44Appended options: 45.Bl -tag -width Ds 46.It Cm b 47The argument 48.Ar number 49refers to blocks. 50.It Cm c 51The argument 52.Ar number 53refers to characters (bytes). 54.It Cm f 55Specifying 56.Cm f 57causes 58.Nm tail 59to not quit at end of file, but rather wait and try to read repeatedly 60in hopes that the file will grow. 61.It Cm l 62The argument 63.Ar number 64refers to line. 65.It Cm r 66Lines are printed from 67.Ar file 68in reverse order. 69The default for 70.Ar r 71is to print the entire file this way. 72.El 73.Pp 74The 75.Nm tail 76utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. 77.Sh SEE ALSO 78.Xr dd 1 79.Sh BUGS 80The behaviour of 81.Nm tail 82on binary or special files is unpredictable. 83.Sh HISTORY 84A 85.Nm 86command appeared in 87.At v7 . 88