On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 14:58:27 -0800 MHR <mhullrich at gmail.com> took out a #2 pencil and scribbled: > On Feb 4, 2008 2:31 PM, Scott Silva <ssilva at sgvwater.com> wrote: > > on 2/4/2008 2:23 PM Bill Campbell spake the following: > > > > > On Mon, Feb 04, 2008, Scott McClanahan wrote: > > > > > > The default syntax for tail for the last 20 years or so would > > > be ``tail -83 filename''. > > > > > That would be for the LAST 83 lines. The poster wanted to start > > the tail FROM line 83 to the end. > > > > The 'tail -#' syntax has been deprecated for years. The correct > syntax, per the man page, is 'tail -n #' for the last # lines of > the file, default 10, and if the # begins with a '+' it means > from the #'th line from the front of the file. > > There is no mention of the 'tail -#' syntax in the man page. > > mhr It's in the info page. info tail HTH -- ethericalzen at gmail.com Life is a prison, death is a release