tail Command Examples

Display the last part of a file. See also: head. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/tail-invocation.html.

• Show last 'count' lines in file:

tail {{[-n|--lines]}} {{count}} {{path/to/file}}

• Print a file from a specific line number:

tail {{[-n|--lines]}} +{{count}} {{path/to/file}}

• Print a specific count of bytes from the end of a given file:

tail {{[-c|--bytes]}} {{count}} {{path/to/file}}

• Print the last lines of a given file and keep reading it until <Ctrl c>:

tail {{[-f|--follow]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Keep reading file until <Ctrl c>, even if the file is inaccessible:

tail --retry {{[-f|--follow]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Show last 'num' lines in 'file' and refresh every 'n' seconds:

tail {{[-n|--lines]}} {{count}} {{[-s|--sleep-interval]}} {{seconds}} {{[-f|--follow]}} {{path/to/file}}