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.
-c, --bytes=[+]NUM
output the last NUM bytes; or use -c +NUM to output starting with byte NUM of each file
-f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
output appended data as the file grows;
an absent option argument means 'descriptor'
-F same as --follow=name--retry-n, --lines=[+]NUM
output the last NUM lines, instead of the last 10; or use -n +NUM to skip NUM-1 lines at the start
--max-unchanged-stats=N
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
--pid=PID
with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies; can be repeated to watch multiple processes
-q, --quiet, --silent
never output headers giving file names
--retry
keep trying to open a file if it is inaccessible
-s, --sleep-interval=N
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
-v, --verbose
always output headers giving file names
-z, --zero-terminated
line delimiter is NUL, not newline
--help display this help and exit
--version
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.