LFCS Question #854: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

The correct answer is D: tail -n 10 filename. The tail command is used to display the last lines of a file, and the -n option specifies the exact number of lines to output.

Submitted by haru.x· Apr 18, 2026Essential Commands

Question

Which of the following commands will print the last 10 lines of a text file to the standard output?

Options

Acat -n 10 filename
Bdump -n 10 filename
Chead -n 10 filename
Dtail -n 10 filename

Explanation

The tail command is used to display the last lines of a file, and the -n option specifies the exact number of lines to output.

Common mistakes.

A. The cat command concatenates and prints file content, and its -n option numbers all output lines, it does not limit the output to the last 10 lines.
B. The dump command is primarily used for filesystem backups, not for displaying specific portions of text files.
C. The head command outputs the first part of files, so head -n 10 filename would print the first 10 lines, not the last 10.

Concept tested. Linux tail command usage

Reference. https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/tail.1.html

Topics

#tail command#file viewing#command line utilities#standard output

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