What Does Tail Command Do in Unix?

How does tail work UNIX?

tail has two special command line option -f and -F (follow) that allows a file to be monitored. Instead of just displaying the last few lines and exiting, tail displays the lines and then monitors the file. As new lines are added to the file by another process, tail updates the display.

How do I use Linux tail?

How to Use the Tail Command

1. Enter the tail command, followed by the file you’d like to view: tail /var/log/auth.log. …
2. To change the number of lines displayed, use the -n option: tail -n 50 /var/log/auth.log. …
3. To show a real-time, streaming output of a changing file, use the -f or –follow options: tail -f /var/log/auth.log.