Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 679831
--lines does not work: tailf: invalid option
Last modified: 2013-03-07 21:11:38 EST
Description of problem: Per TAILF(1) -n, --lines=N, -N output the last N lines, instead of the last 10. [newman@dhcp-25-28 tmp]$ echo -e "XXX\nZZZ\nDDD" > file [newman@dhcp-25-28 tmp]$ cat file XXX ZZZ DDD [newman@dhcp-25-28 tmp]$ tailf --lines=1 file tailf: invalid option [newman@dhcp-25-28 tmp]$ echo $? 1 But: [newman@dhcp-25-28 tmp]$ tailf -n 1 file DDD ^C Works fine. So either --lines should be removed from tailf(1) man page of the code fixed (sources mention `--lines` option). Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): util-linux-ng-2.17.2-10.el6.x86_64 How reproducible: always
(In reply to comment #0) > -n, --lines=N, -N > output the last N lines, instead of the last 10. The tailf(1) command supports --lines command line option, but without '=', for example: tailf --lines 1 file It's bug in the man page. Ideal solution is to update the code and use the standard getopt() there.
The upstream commit dc181a2115e71ac9d8ff07375330c3652288f348 fixes this problem, unfortunately it's too invasive for RHEL. For RHEL will be better to fix the tailf(1) man page.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1691.html