tail: cannot open `+5' for reading: No such file or directory

mcgao07 · 10-22-2008, 12:46 PM

Hello,

I have a simple script that runs well on other linux but not on my new RHEL v5. It says:
"tail: cannot open `+5' for reading: No such file or directory"

The line causes the trouble is:
cat XYZ.poscar | tail +5 | awk '{printf("%4s%6s%4s\n",$5, $6, $4)}' > types_

I appreciate any help.

Michael

forrestt · 10-22-2008, 12:54 PM

What are you trying to do?

Forrest

JD50 · 10-22-2008, 12:58 PM

It should be

Code:

 tail -5

not

Code:

 tail +5

forrestt · 10-22-2008, 01:05 PM

I'm guessing it should be:

Code:

tail -5 XYZ.poscar | awk '{printf("%4s%6s%4s\n",$5, $6, $4)}' > types_

But since I don't know what he's trying to do, I cant really say. Perhaps +5 is a valid option to tail on some flavour of Linux I've not used.

Forrest

colucix · 10-22-2008, 01:07 PM

The tail +N syntax is obsolete and it's not accepted on some systems. Instead, you have to use the option -n explictly:

Code:

tail -n +5

or eventually you can specify an older POSIX standard in your environment. You can do this by defining the environment variable _POSIX2_VERSION, for example by using the env command:

Code:

env _POSIX2_VERSION=199209 tail +5 XYZ.poscar | awk ...

this force to run the tail command conformed to POSIX 1003.2-1992.

colucix · 10-22-2008, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by forrestt

Perhaps +5 is a valid option to tail on some flavour of Linux I've not used.

Yes. The +N option means "show the last lines of the file starting from the Nth line" instead of the default 10 lines.

forrestt · 10-22-2008, 01:16 PM

So, then it should be:

Code:

awk 'NR>4 {printf("%4s%6s%4s\n",$5, $6, $4)}' > types_

HTH

Forrest

mcgao07 · 10-22-2008, 01:16 PM

Thank you all for such prompt replies. The option "tail -n +5" really works.

Michael