TAIL(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to TAIL(1) — the page from the General Commands Manual. tail prints the last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. If you give it more than one FILE, it puts a header with the file name before each one. If you give it no FILE, or when FILE is -, it reads standard input. And yeah: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

tail prints the last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, each one gets a header giving the file name before it. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, it reads standard input. 🫶

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. No cap.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -c, --bytes — Number of bytes to print.
• -f, --follow — Print the file as it grows. Possible values:
  • descriptor
  • name
• -n, --lines — Number of lines to print.
• --pid <PID> — With -f, terminate after process ID PID dies.
• -q, --quiet — Never output headers giving file names.
• -s, --sleep-interval <N> — Number of seconds to sleep between polling the file when running with -f.
• --max-unchanged-stats <N> — 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); This option is meaningful only when polling (i.e., with --use-polling) and when --follow=name.
• -v, --verbose — Always output headers giving file names.
• -z, --zero-terminated — Line delimiter is NUL, not newline.
• --use-polling — Disable inotify support and use polling instead.
• --retry — Keep trying to open a file if it is inaccessible.
• -F — Same as --follow=name --retry.
• --debug — Indicate which --follow implementation is used.
• -h, --help — Print help.
• -V, --version — Print version.
• [files] — The FILE arguments go here, bestie.

👑 VERSION 👑

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

xoxo bestie 💖 — source/version v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0, dated 2026-09-17 🌈