man entry for tail

tail - output the last part of files

SYNOPSIS
       tail [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       Print  the  last  10  lines  of each FILE to standard output.  With more than one
       FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name.  With  no  FILE,  or  when
       FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       --retry
              keep  trying to open a file even if it is inaccessible when tail starts or
              if it becomes inaccessible later -- useful only with -f

       -c, --bytes=N
              output the last N bytes

       -f, --follow[={name|descriptor}]
              output  appended  data  as  the  file  grows;  -f,  --follow,  and  --fol-
              low=descriptor are equivalent

       -F     same as --follow=name --retry

       -n, --lines=N
              output the last N lines, instead of the last 10

       --max-unchanged-stats=N
              with  --follow=name,  reopen  a  FILE  which  has not changed size after N
              (default 5) iterations to see if it has been unlinked or renamed (this  is
              the usual case of rotated log files)

       --pid=PID
              with -f, terminate after process ID, PID dies

       -q, --quiet, --silent
              never output headers giving file names

       -s, --sleep-interval=S
              with  -f,  sleep  for approximately S seconds (default 1.0) between itera-
              tions.

       -v, --verbose
              always output headers giving file names

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       If the first character of N (the number of bytes or lines) is a `+', print begin-
       ning  with  the Nth item from the start of each file, otherwise, print the last N
       items in the file.  N may have a multiplier suffix: b for 512, k for 1024, m  for
       1048576 (1 Meg).