GNU bug report logs - #39951
tail -n +NUM is not working properly

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From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: Dimitris Moraitidis <dimitris.moraitidis <at> gmail.com>, 39951 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#39951: tail -n +NUM is not working properly
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2020 18:35:24 +0100

On 3/6/20 10:42 AM, Dimitris Moraitidis wrote:
> Hey there,
> 
> tail -n + NUM does not return the desired output. +NUM starts from the top
> of the file, not from the bottom.
> 
> So for example, given the following file:
> 
>> this
>> is
>> an
>> example
>> file
>> each
>> word
>> represents
>> a
>> line
> 
> and executing tail -n +3 example, I am getting
> 
>> example
>> file
>> each
>> word
>> represents
>> a
>> line
> 
> instead of
> 
> 
>> this
>> is
>> an
>> example
>> file
>> each
>> word
> 
> I am using *tail (GNU coreutils) 8.28 *in latest ubuntu 18.04 LTS
> 
> Thanks in advance for looking into this :)

Isn't this exactly what tail(1) is support to do when the user explicitly
passes the '+' sign to the number?

  $ tail --help | grep -A1 -- --lines
    -n, --lines=[+]NUM       output the last NUM lines, instead of the last 10;
                               or use -n +NUM to output starting with line NUM

Also POSIX says so:
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/tail.html

Have a nice day,
Berny

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