tail
Last updated
What is tail?
The tail command is a Unix/Linux utility used to display the last part of a file. By default, it shows the last 10 lines of a specified file. It's particularly useful for viewing recent entries in log files, monitoring file changes in real-time, and quickly checking the end of large text files. The command can be customized to display a different number of lines, and with the -f (follow) option, it can continuously update to show new lines as they're added to the file. This makes tail invaluable for system administrators and developers for real-time log monitoring, troubleshooting, and observing ongoing processes or application outputs.
Free resources to learn tail
- Articletail man page
- VideoLinux Tail Command
More in stage 5: Cloud Skills and Knowledge
- Cloud Skills and Knowledge
- ISO
- RMF
- NIST
- CIS
- CSF
- LOLBAS
- GTFOBINS
- WADCOMS
- dig
- nmap
- ping
- arp
- cat
- dd
- Salting
- Hashing
- Key Exchange
- Phishing
- Whishing
- Whaling
- hping
- head
- grep
- nslookup
- Private vs Public Keys
- Smishing
- Spam vs Spim
- tracert
- winhex
- autopsy
- ipconfig
- PKI
- Obfuscation
- Shoulder Surfing
- Tailgating
- curl
- wireshark
- memdump
- Dumpster Diving
- Diamond Model
- Kill Chain
- Zero day
- FTK Imager
- ATT&CK
- Social Engineering
- Reconnaissance
- Impersonation
- ParrotOS
- Kali Linux
- Watering Hole Attack
- Drive by Attack
- SIEM
- SOAR
- Typo Squatting
- Brute Force vs Password Spray
- Event Logs
- syslogs
- netflow
- FTP vs SFTP
- SSL vs TLS
- IPSEC
- Packet Captures
- Firewall Logs
- DNSSEC
- LDAPS
- SRTP
- S/MIME
- DoS vs DDoS
- MITM
- CSRF
- Spoofing
- SQL Injection
- XSS
- MAC-based
- NAC-based
- Antivirus
- Antimalware
- EDR
- DLP
- Evil Twin
- VLAN Hopping
- Port Blocking
- Group Policy
- Firewall & Nextgen Firewall
- HIPS
- NIDS
- DNS Poisoning
- Sinkholes
- ACLs
- Patching
- NIPS
- Host Based Firewall
- Sandboxing
- Deauth Attack
- Jump Server
- Endpoint Security
- EAP vs PEAP
- WPS
- ACL
- Replay Attack
- WPA vs WPA2 vs WPA3 vs WEP
- Rogue Access Point
- VirusTotal
- urlscan
- any.run
- Preparation
- Identification
- Containment
- Buffer Overflow
- Joe Sandbox
- urlvoid
- WHOIS
- Eradication
- Recovery
- Lessons Learned
- Memory Leak
- Stakeholders
- HR
- Legal
- Pass the Hash
- Compliance
- Management
- Zero Day
- Known vs Unknown
- APT
- Directory Traversal
tail: common questions
Can I learn tail in Hindi?
This lesson is written in English. Once you sign in, open it in the interactive course and ask the AI tutor to explain tail in Hindi or Hinglish. The tutor answers from this lesson’s own text, so it stays on the syllabus, and it runs on your own Google, OpenAI or Anthropic key.
Is this tail tutorial for beginners?
It is lesson 168 of 301 in the free Cyber Security roadmap, in stage 5, Cloud Skills and Knowledge. If you are new to Cyber Security, start from stage 1 and come back here in order; if you already know the earlier stages, this lesson stands on its own.