tail: cannot open `+466'

[vaskbtech]

Hi
any one hlep me
I'm running into an issue during the install of /home/root1/Desktop/j2sdk-1_4_2_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin

Do you agree to the above license terms? [yes or no]
yes
Unpacking...
tail: cannot open `+466' for reading: No such file or directory
Checksumming...
please reply me.....
Thanks and Regards
Mathan

[Rubberman]

That's an old Java sdk, so it's possible that something in the script doesn't agree with your Ubuntu system's tail command, as indicated by the error message. Since the file is just a shell script, you can edit it and fix the problem yourself.

[Mudgen]

Older versions of tail didn't require the "-n" switch. Find the "+466" in the file and make it "-n+466". That SDK is ancient, as Rubberman notes. From around 2004.

[alf55]

Older versions of tail didn't require the "-n" switch. Find the "+466" in the file and make it "-n+466". That SDK is ancient, as Rubberman notes. From around 2004.

Actually older tail command excepted "+linecountasnumber" and so do the modern tail command. The correct solution is:

tail -- +466

Most commands will except the "--" argument that says there are no more arguments after it or "This is the last argument". It allows for arguments to start with a "-" and not be picked up as an option when after the "--" option. Since some commands use both "-" and "+" as an option indicator (such as tail and head) the "--" gets the used often in these cases. (also removing, renaming, coping a file that starts with a minus (and maybe a plus as well) will need to know about the "--" option.

[Mudgen]

I thought you'd taught an old dog a new trick. But in Fedora 12:

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/tail
coreutils-7.6-9.fc12.i686
$ wc -l /etc/services
10676 /etc/services
$ tail -n+10675 /etc/services
iqobject        48619/tcp               # iqobject
iqobject        48619/udp               # iqobject
$ cat /etc/services|tail -n+10675
iqobject        48619/tcp               # iqobject
iqobject        48619/udp               # iqobject
$ tail -- +10675 /etc/services
tail: cannot open `+10675' for reading: No such file or directory
==> /etc/services <==
nimgtw          48003/tcp               # Nimbus Gateway
nimgtw          48003/udp               # Nimbus Gateway
isnetserv       48128/tcp               # Image Systems Network Services
isnetserv       48128/udp               # Image Systems Network Services
blp5            48129/tcp               # Bloomberg locator
blp5            48129/udp               # Bloomberg locator
com-bardac-dw   48556/tcp               # com-bardac-dw
com-bardac-dw   48556/udp               # com-bardac-dw
iqobject        48619/tcp               # iqobject
iqobject        48619/udp               # iqobject
$ cat /etc/services|tail -- +10675
tail: cannot open `+10675' for reading: No such file or directory

What environment did you find that to work in? Am I missing something about the syntax you advocate?

[alf55]

The original message here looked like you were attempting to read a file named "+466" not that you were specifing 446 lines to be shown. The older versiond of tail did not need the "-n" prior to the the number. In the above case (quoted here):

tail -n+10675 /etc/services

would normally be done as:

tail -n 10675 /etc/services

If you read the description of the the "--" it said that it ends the options so that the file "+446" could be read by tail not that the +446 was an option.

[Mudgen]

"tail -n 10675 /etc/services"

That would return the last 10675 lines. My example was for lines from line 10675 to end. The OP was working with a script intended to return line 466 through end, but it had been written for a tail command pre-dating the "-n" syntax. My 3-31-2010 post was a correct solution for that.