tailz

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Simple program to read the last n line(s) of a file.
# Reads from the end of the file for efficiency.

# Originally coded by zentara on 06 September 2002:
#   https://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=195768

# Improved by Trizen on 11 February 2012

# usage tailz  filename  numberoflines

my $filename = shift or die "usage: $0 file numlines\n";
my $numlines = shift // 10;
my $byte;

# Open the file in read mode
open my $fh, '<', $filename or die "Couldn't open $filename: $!";

# Rewind from the end of the file until count of eol 's
seek $fh, -1, 2;    # get past last eol
my $count = 0;

while (tell($fh) > 0) {
    seek $fh, -1, 1;
    read $fh, $byte, 1;
    last if $byte eq "\n" and ++$count == $numlines;
    seek $fh, -1, 1;
}

local $/ = undef;
print scalar <$fh>;