tail show the last lines
tail prints the end of a file, 10 lines by default. It can also start from a given line, which is handy for dropping a header row, and it can follow a log file as it grows.
Availability Preinstalled on macOS, Linux and BSD
Syntax
tail [-n count] [-f] [file ...]Common options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
-n N | Print the last N lines |
-n +N | Print everything from line N onwards. -n +2 skips a header row |
-f | Keep the file open and print new lines as they are written |
Examples
Last 20 lines of a log
tail -n 20 app.logWatch a log live
tail -f app.logEverything except the header
tail -n +2 users.csvUse tail with sqx
Combine CSV files that each have a header
Keep the header from the first file only, then append the data rows of every file.
{ head -n 1 january.csv; tail -n +2 january.csv; tail -n +2 february.csv; } | sqx "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM stdin"Query only the most recent entries
tail -n 500 access.jsonl | sqx "SELECT status, COUNT(*) FROM stdin GROUP BY status"tail -f never finishes, and sqx waits for the end of its input, so don't pipe tail -f into sqx. Take a fixed number of lines with -n instead.
Full documentation
This page covers the essentials. For every option, see the official documentation:
Or read the manual in your terminal: man tail