Re: tail -n N

[Jim Meyering]

address@hidden wrote:
> man tail
>        -c, --bytes=N
>               output the last N bytes
>
>        -n, --lines=N
>               output the last N lines, instead of the last 10
> say
>       -c N, --bytes=N
> etc. just like grep(1).

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the suggestion.
However, such a change would affect more than just tail.
Many of coreutils' man pages use the above short-cut notation
in an attempt to keep lines short.

This line at the top,

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

is intended to clarify the situation.

> P.S.,
>    For compatibility `tail' also supports an obsolete usage `tail
>    -COUNT[bcl][f] [FILE]', which is recognized only if it does not
>    conflict with the usage described above.  COUNT is an optional decimal
>    number optionally followed by a size letter (`b', `c', `l') to mean
> Mention it also doesn't work if more than one file is given:

While I appreciate suggestions like this,
it would be nice if you'd take a minute or two
more to check the latest upstream sources before
making such a request.  In this case, it's already done:

    For compatibility `tail' also supports an obsolete usage `tail
    -[COUNT][bcl][f] [FILE]', which is recognized only if it does not
    conflict with the usage described above.  This obsolete form uses
    exactly one option and at most one file.  In the option, COUNT is an
    optional decimal number optionally followed by a size letter (`b', `c',
    `l') to mean count by 512-byte blocks, bytes, or lines, optionally
    followed by `f' which has the same meaning as `-f'.

You can get a copy of the latest sources via

    git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/coreutils

Then, to update, do "cd coreutils && git pull".