tail Linux Command Cheatsheet

tail Linux Command is used to display tail end of a text file/ piped data.

Syntax

tail [options] file-name

Examples

For example consider the following file

$ cat readme.txt 
line1
line2
line3
line4
line5
line6
line7
line8
line9
line10
line11
line12
line13
line14
line15

$ tail readme.txt
line6
line7
line8
line9
line10
line11
line12
line13
line14
line15

Note: head by default shows first 10 lines

Showing last 2 lines

$ tail -n 2 readme.txt
line14
line15

Showing last 5 lines

$ tail -n 5 readme.txt
line11
line12
line13
line14
line15

Showing from multiple files

$ tail -n 2 readme.txt readme-2.txt
==> readme.txt <==
line14
line15

==> readme-2.txt <==
line14

Showing from all files that are starting with readme

$ tail -n 2 readme*
==> readme-1.txt <==
line14
line15
==> readme-2.txt <==
line14
line15
==> readme.txt <==
line14
line15