difference in the tail command between most Linux distros and Fedora

Chris F.A. Johnson cfaj-uVmiyxGBW52XDw4h08c5KA at public.gmane.org
Mon Dec 15 15:31:45 UTC 2008


On Mon, 15 Dec 2008, bob 295 wrote:

> If you look at the reference for the tail command it talks to the option to
> specify a +n  so that tail starts n lines from beginning of file.
>
> As an experiment create a 5 line text file called bob.    Then
>
> tail +3 bob
>
> should dump lines 3-5.
>
> Except on Fedora systems.     Apparently they have a different flavor of tail
> which doesn't recognize the + sign and tries to open a file call "+3".
>
> Does anyone have any history as to why this might be so?    Any work arounds?

     The POSIX specs do not allow for the +3 syntax; it should be -n+3.
     Most versions of tail allow both. For a short while there was a
     version in the wild that didn't allow +3; it didn't last long, as
     compatibility with existing scripts was important. You must have
     that version.

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