Print the last line of a file, from the CLI

Question

How to print just the last line of a file?

Answer 1

Use the right tool for the job. Since you want to get the last line of a file, tail is the appropriate tool for the job, especially if you have a large file. Tail's file processing algorithm is more efficient in this case.

tail -n 1 file

If you really want to use awk,

awk 'END{print}' file

EDIT : tail -1 file deprecated

Answer 2

You can achieve this using sed as well. However, I personally recommend using tail or awk.

Anyway, if you wish to do by sed, here are two ways:

Method 1:

sed '$!d' filename

Method2:

sed -n '$p' filename

Here, filename is the name of the file that has data to be analysed.

Answer 3

Is it a must to use awk for this? Why not just use tail -n 1 myFile ?

Answer 4

$ cat file | awk 'END{print}'

Originally answered by Ventero

Answer 5

Find out the last line of a file:

1. Using sed (stream editor): sed -n '$p' fileName

2. Using tail: tail -1 fileName

3. using awk: awk 'END { print }' fileName