tail

Show last 10 lines of a file

$ tail [file]

$ tail -n [20] [file]

$ tail -n +[10] [file]

$ tail -f [file]

$ tail -f [file1] [file2]

$ tail -F [file]

$ tail -c [100] [file]

tail [options] [file...]

tail outputs the last part of files. By default, it shows the last 10 lines. It's commonly used to view log files and monitor file changes in real-time.
The -f (follow) option is particularly useful for monitoring log files. Tail continues reading as new lines are appended, displaying them immediately.
Using -n +N outputs starting from line N rather than the last N lines. This is useful for skipping headers or combining with head for extracting specific ranges.
Multiple files can be specified; tail shows headers indicating which file output comes from.

-n N, --lines=N

Output last N lines (or +N for starting from line N)

Output last N bytes (or +N for starting from byte N)

Output appended data as file grows

Same as --follow=name --retry

Keep trying to open file if inaccessible

Sleep N seconds between iterations with -f

With -f, terminate after process PID dies

Never output headers with file names

Always output headers with file names

-f follows the file descriptor. If a file is deleted and recreated (common with log rotation), use -F which follows by name and retries.
For large files, tail is efficient—it seeks to near the end rather than reading the entire file.
The + syntax for -n and -c counts from the beginning (1-indexed for lines, 0-indexed for bytes). tail -n +1 outputs the entire file.

head(1), less(1), cat(1), multitail(1)