How to read a file backwards on Linux?

linux cat
Pedro Alves picture Pedro Alves · Feb 17, 2013 · Viewed 10.4k times · Source

I know that I can use cat to print all content from a file from beginning to end on Linux. Is there a way for doing that backward (last line first)?

Answer

Pedro Alves picture Pedro Alves · Feb 17, 2013

Yes, you can use "tac" command.

From man tac:

Usage: tac [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Write each FILE to standard output, last line first.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
  -b, --before             attach the separator before instead of after
  -r, --regex              interpret the separator as a regular expression
  -s, --separator=STRING   use STRING as the separator instead of newline
      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

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