Say I have a directory with N log files inside:

file1.log
file2.log
file3.log
...
fileN.log

Which linux command can I use to print the last n rows of each of those files above?

I know how to print it for 1 file:

less file1.log | tail -n 5

But I would like to do it simultaneously for all N files in the directory

CodePudding user response：

A for loop is not the best, since it will not support all cases. Ex. if you have spaces in your filenames.

To avoid all issues, use:

find . -type f -name "*.log" -exec tail -5 {} \; -print

• .: is the current directory. If your log files are not in the current directory, you can replace the . by the directory containing the files.
• -name "*.log" can be modified to filter your files more precisely. Ex. file*.log.
• tail -5 {} will print the last 5 lines. Change the number as you require.
• the -print option will print the filenames of logs found. But you can omit it if you do not need that information in your display.

CodePudding user response：

Use the command "ls *.log | sort -V | tail -n {number}", where number is the number of output files from the end.
For example, "ls *.log | sort -V | tail -n 5" will output in a directory with ten log files only:
file6.log
file7.log
file8.log
file9.log
file10.log

Without the insert "sort -V" in the middle there will be not a natural sort, but a machine sort, that is, "ls *.log | tail -n 10" will output: file10.log
file1.log
file2.log
file3.log
file4.log
file5.log
file6.log
file7.log
file8.log
file9.log