On Unix-like operating systems, the tac command catenates and prints the contents of files, in reverse, line by line.
This page covers the GNU/Linux version of tac.
Description
tac (which is “cat” backwards) concatenates each FILE to standard output like the cat command, but in reverse: line by line, printing the last line first. This is useful (for instance) for examining a chronological log file where the last line of the file contains the most recent information.
- Description
- Syntax
- Examples
- Related commands
- Linux commands help
If no FILE is specified, or if the FILE is specified as “-”, tac reverses the contents of standard input.
Syntax
tac [OPTION] … [FILE] …
Options
Examples
tac file1.txt
Prints the lines of file1.txt in reverse, from last line to first.
Related commands
cat — Output the contents of a file. tail — Print the last lines of a text file.