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TAIL(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 TAIL(1)

NAME
     tail -- display the last part of a file

SYNOPSIS
     tail [-F | -f | -r] [-b number | -c number | -n number] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The tail utility displays the contents of file or, by default, its standard
     input, to the standard output.

     The display begins at a byte, line or 512-byte block location in the input.
     Numbers having a leading plus (``+'') sign are relative to the beginning of
     the  input,  for  example, "-c +2" starts the display at the second byte of
     the input.  Numbers having a leading minus (``-'') sign or no explicit sign
     are relative to the end of the input, for example, "-n 2" displays the last
     two lines of the input.  The default starting location is "-n 10",  or  the
     last 10 lines of the input.

     The options are as follows:

     -b number
	     The location is number 512-byte blocks.

     -c number
	     The location is number bytes.

     -f      The  -f option causes tail to not stop when end of file is reached,
	     but rather to wait for additional data to be appended to the input.
	     The -f option is ignored if the standard input is a pipe,	but  not
	     if it is a FIFO.

     -F      The  -F  option  implies the -f option, but tail will also check to
	     see if the file being followed has been renamed  or  rotated.   The
	     file is closed and reopened when tail detects that the filename be-
	     ing  read from has a new inode number.  The -F option is ignored if
	     reading from standard input rather than a file.

     -n number
	     The location is number lines.

     -r      The -r option causes the input to be displayed in reverse order, by
	     line.  Additionally, this option changes the meaning of the -b,  -c
	     and  -n  options.	 When  the -r option is specified, these options
	     specify the number of bytes, lines or 512-byte blocks  to	display,
	     instead  of the bytes, lines or blocks from the beginning or end of
	     the input from which to begin the display.  The default for the  -r
	     option is to display all of the input.

     If  more than a single file is specified, each file is preceded by a header
     consisting of the string "==> XXX <==" where "XXX" is the name of the file.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The tail utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     cat(1), head(1), sed(1)

STANDARDS
     The tail utility is expected to be a superset of the IEEE	Std  1003.2-1992
     ("POSIX.2")  specification.   In  particular, the -F, -b and -r options are
     extensions to that standard.

     The historic command line syntax of tail is supported by  this  implementa-
     tion.   The  only	difference between this implementation and historic ver-
     sions of tail, once the command line syntax translation has been  done,  is
     that the -b, -c and -n options modify the -r option, i.e., ``-r -c 4'' dis-
     plays  the  last 4 characters of the last line of the input, while the his-
     toric tail (using the historic syntax ``-4cr'') would ignore the -c  option
     and display the last 4 lines of the input.

HISTORY
     A tail command appeared in PWB UNIX.

FreeBSD 5.4			  June 6, 1993				 TAIL(1)
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