tail

Sample and monitor file endings and live-updating streams.

Quick Start

1. Verify tail is available: tail --version or man tail
2. Establish the command surface: man tail or tail --help
3. Start with a read-only probe: tail -n 10 file.txt

Intent Router

Load only the reference file needed for the active request.

• references/install-and-setup.md — Installing tail (GNU, BSD) on macOS, Linux, Windows
• references/cheatsheet.md — Common flags, line/byte counts, follow mode, multiple files
• references/advanced-usage.md — GNU vs BSD differences, log rotation handling, large files, performance
• references/troubleshooting.md — Follow mode issues, file rotation, encoding, exit codes