tail

Show the last lines of a file, or follow it

What it does

tail prints the end of a file, 10 lines by default; -n sets the number. The newest log entries are right there at the end.

With -f (follow) it keeps running and prints new lines as they are written to the file. That is how you watch server logs live. Quit with Ctrl+C.

Syntax

tail <file>
tail -n <number> <file>
tail -f <file>

Examples

• Follow the app.log log in real time

  tail -f app.log

  same as: tail --follow app.log

  • tail — end of the file
  • -f — show new lines as they are written
  • app.log — file

Related commands

• head — Show the first lines of a file
• less — Read a big file page by page
• grep — Find the lines with some text in files

Practise · All commands