.TH TAIL 1
.SH NAME
tail \- deliver the last part of a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B tail
[
.BR +- \fInumber\fP[ lbc ][ rf ]
]
[
.I file
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Tail
copies the named file to the standard output beginning
at a designated place.
If no file is named, the standard input is copied.
.PP
Copying begins at position
.BI + number
measured from the beginning, or
.BI - number
from the end of the input.
.I Number
is counted in lines, 1K blocks or characters,
according to the appended flag
.LR l ,
.LR b ,
or
.LR c .
Default is
.B -10l
(ten ell).
.PP
The further flag
.L r
causes tail to print lines from the end of the file in reverse order;
.L f
(follow) causes
.I tail,
after printing to the end, to keep watch and
print further data as it appears.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
.B tail file
Print the last 10 lines of a file.
.TP
.B tail +0f file
Print a file, and continue to watch
data accumulate as it grows.
.TP
.B sed 10q file
Print the first 10 lines of a file.
.SH BUGS
Tails relative to the end of the file
are treasured up in a buffer, and thus
are limited in length.
.br
According to custom, option
.BI + number
counts lines from 1, and counts
blocks and characters from 0.
