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8

Thanks! I didn't know that piped input carried over to a second process like that - that's very neat. I can't believe I didn't think of bs=1131 skip=1 though :-/

Rup
– Rup

2011-02-04 00:35:02 +00:00
Commented Feb 4, 2011 at 0:35
2

Most modern implementations of shell utilities work correctly with binary files (i.e. they have no trouble with null characters and won't insert an extra newline at the end of the file). Certainly GNU and *BSD implementations are safe.

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'

2011-02-05 00:04:09 +00:00
Commented Feb 5, 2011 at 0:04
1

What does "not safe to use it with binary files" mean?

Him
– Him

2019-10-29 13:56:20 +00:00
Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 13:56
1

@Scott It means that some implementations of tail (especially legacy systems) tend to mangle binary data. But on Linux that's definitely not the case.

CoolKoon
– CoolKoon

2020-04-09 18:10:31 +00:00
Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 18:10

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