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P4 CLI Documentation | 2026.1

# p4 logtail

Display the last block(s) of the error log.

## Syntax

    p4 [g-opts] logtail [-b blocksize] [-s start_offset [-m maxBlocks]] [-l log]

Syntax and naming conventions

## Description

The `p4 logtail` command displays the last block(s) of the error log, and the offset for the next block, when available.

Output consists of a series of lines in tagged format. The first line is "`... file LOG`", followed by multiple blocks of log data. By default, all blocks from the `start_offset` are output until the end of the file. The data is returned in blocks of size `blocksize`, each of which is tagged with "`... data`". The last line is "`... offset`next_offset``", where `next_offset` is the offset in the logfile from which the next block of data is to be retrieved.

If you specify the name of an error log that has an associated counter, the `p4 logtail` command returns the current value of that counter. It also returns the current size of the log, at the end of the output (along with the ending offset in the log). The size and offset are the same if the command reads to the end of the log.

## Options

Option | Description
--- | ---
`-b blocksize` | The block size, in bytes. The default is 8192 bytes.
`-l log` | If specified, the name of the log to display.
`-m maxBlocks` | The maximum number of blocks to output. Ignored unless `-s` is also specified.
`-s start` | The offset (from the beginning of the file), in bytes.
`g-opts` | See Global options.

## Usage notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier? | Can File Arguments Use Revision Range? | Minimal Access Level Required
--- | --- | ---
N/A | N/A | `super` available to an operator user

See Logging commands in the P4 Server Administration Documentation.

## Examples

`p4 logtail -b 1024 -m 2` | Display the last two kilobytes of the log file, as two separate blocks of 1,024 bytes each.

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