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TAIL

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

tail - output the last part of files

SYNOPSIS

tail [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]...

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 options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-c'-c, --bytes=,[+]NUMX'tty: link'/: output the last NUM bytes; or use -c +NUM to output starting with byte NUM of each file
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-debug'--debugX'tty: link': indicate which --follow implementation is used
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-f'-f, --follow[=,{name|descriptor}]X'tty: link'/: output appended data as the file grows; an absent option argument means 'descriptor'
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-F'-FX'tty: link': same as --follow=,name/ --retry
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-n'-n, --lines=,[+]NUMX'tty: link'/: output the last NUM lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n +NUM to skip NUM-1 lines at the start
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-ma-unchange-stats'--max-unchanged-stats=NX'tty: link': with --follow=,name/, 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); with inotify, this option is rarely useful
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-pid'--pid=PIDX'tty: link': with -f, exit after PID no longer exists; can be repeated to watch multiple processes
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-q'-q, --quiet, --silentX'tty: link': never output headers giving file names
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-retry'--retryX'tty: link': keep trying to open a file if it is inaccessible
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-s'-s, --sleep-interval=,NX'tty: link'/: with -f, sleep for approximately N seconds (default 1.0) between iterations; with inotify and --pid=,P/, check process P at least once every N seconds
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-v'-v, --verboseX'tty: link': always output headers giving file names
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#tai-z'-z, --zero-terminatedX'tty: link': line delimiter is NUL, not newline
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/tail#tai-help'--helpX'tty: link': display this help and exit
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/tail#tai-version'--versionX'tty: link': output version information and exit

NUM may have a multiplier suffix: b 512, kB 1000, K 1024, MB 1000*1000, M 1024*1024, GB 1000*1000*1000, G 1024*1024*1024, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y, R, Q. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and so on.

With --follow (-f), tail defaults to following the file descriptor, which means that even if a tail'ed file is renamed, tail will continue to track its end. This default behavior is not desirable when you really want to track the actual name of the file, not the file descriptor (e.g., log rotation). Use --follow=,name/ in that case. That causes tail to track the named file in a way that accommodates renaming, removal and creation.