HPR1042: LiTS: 012 - tail

Summary: The tail command is used to print out the last 10 lines of a file to standard out. This command is a staple in a system administrator’s tool kit and especially handy when monitoring log files. The basic syntax is: tail some_file Which will output the last 10 lines of the file. You can alter then number of lines with the -n, or –lines=, flag: tail -n20 some_file tail –lines=20 some_file In some versions of tail you can get away with specifying the number of lines from the end with just a “-” and number: tail -30 some_file Instead of working backwards with the -n command you can specify a “+” and some number to start from that number and list the contents to the end: tail -n+30 some_file This will display the contents of some_file from line 30 to the end of the file. For the complete write up including video please go to http://www.linuxintheshell.org/2012/07/31/episode-012-tail/