tail(1)

🌸 tail(1) — the "gimme the END of it" era 🌸

okay bestie, so this is tail, and she lives in the General Commands Manual section 1. she is THE moment for peeking at the bottom of files and honestly? iconic. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

tail — print the last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. Mandatory arguments to long flags are mandatory for short flags too.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

tail [-c|--bytes] [-f|--follow] [-n|--lines] [--pid] [-q|--quiet]
[-s|--sleep-interval] [--max-unchanged-stats] [-v|--verbose]
[-z|--zero-terminated] [--use-polling] [--retry] [-F ] [--debug]
[-h|--help] [-V|--version] [files]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Print the last 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. Mandatory arguments to long flags are mandatory for short flags too.

no cap, that's the whole vibe: you point her at a file, she shows you the tail end of it. 🐕🦋 and if you hand her a bunch of files at once, she's polite enough to label each one with a header so you know whose vibes you're reading. 🙈

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -c, --bytes — number of bytes to print. she counts bytes, not lines. it's giving precise. 🎀
• -f, --follow — print the file as it grows. she just keeps watching, like a loyal bestie in the group chat. 👀

Possible values:

• descriptor
• name

• -n, --lines — number of lines to print. the classic. 💅
• --pid <PID> — with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies. so she follows along until that process ghosts, then she dips too. 💀
• -q, --quiet — never output headers giving file names. no labels, just content. minimalism era. 🤫
• -s, --sleep-interval <N> — number of seconds to sleep between polling the file when running with -f. she takes little naps between check-ins. 😴
• --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. it's the "hey girl, are you still there??" check. 🫶
• -v, --verbose — always output headers giving file names. she's gonna announce everything, main character energy. 📣
• -z, --zero-terminated — line delimiter is NUL, not newline. fancy. NUL is her newline now. ✨
• --use-polling — disable 'inotify' support and use polling instead. old-school check-ins, no fancy notifications. 🐢
• --retry — keep trying to open a file if it is inaccessible. she does NOT give up on you. 😤
• -F — same as --follow=name --retry. the combo meal. 🔥
• --debug — indicate which --follow implementation is used. she tells you which method she's running, for the nosy besties. 🔍
• -h, --help — print help. 🆘
• -V, --version — print version. 💜
• [files] — the files! the whole point! point her at them! 🌈

lowkey important reminder bestie: "mandatory arguments to long flags are mandatory for short flags too" — so if a long flag needs a value, the short version needs one too. no skipping. periodt. 💅

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

v(uutils coreutils) 0.7.0

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and that's the whole page!! thank you for coming to my ted talk. this masterpiece is brought to you by uutils coreutils, version 0.7.0 — the tail (uutils coreutils) 0.7.0 era, no date on this one, she's timeless like that. 🦋✨💖 mwah, go read some file endings, you ate. 💅