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researchv10 Dan Cross

.TH TAIL 1
.if t .ds pm \*(+-
.if n .ds pm +-
.CT 1 files
.SH NAME
tail, readslow, head \- print the last part of a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B tail
[
.I otion ...
.BR \*(pm \fInumber\fP[ lbc ][ rf ]
]
[
.I file
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Tail
copies the named file to the standard output beginning
at a designated place, normally 10 lines from the end.
If no file is named, the standard input is used.
The options are
.TP
.BR \*(pm \fInumber\fP[ lbc ][ rf ]
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 
(default),
.LR b ,
or
.LR c .
Further flags
.L r
and
.L f
have the effect of options 
.B -r
and
.B -l .
.TP 
.B -r
Print lines from the end of the file in reverse order.
Default line count is unbounded.
.TP 
.B -f
Follow.
After printing to the end, keep watch and
print further data as it appears.
.TP
.BI "-c \*(pm" number
.br
.ns
.TP
.BI "-n \*(pm" number
.I Number
may be signed, with sign
.B -
assumed by default.
The effect is the same as
.BI \*(pm number c 
or
.BI \*(pm number l
[sic] respectively.
.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.
A similar function is sometimes called
.I readslow.
.TP
.B sed 10q file
Print the first 10 lines of a file.
A similar function is sometimes called
.I head.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR dd (1)
.SH BUGS
Tails relative to the end of the file
are treasured up in a buffer, and thus
are limited in length, even under option 
.BR -r .
.br
According to custom, option
.BI + number
counts lines from 1, and counts
blocks and characters from 0.

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