Reading the last n lines of a file in Ruby?

Question

I need to read the last 25 lines from a file (for displaying the most recent log entries). Is there anyway in Ruby to start at the end of a file and read it backwards?

Answer 1

Improved version of manveru's excellent seek-based solution. This one returns exactly n lines.

class File

  def tail(n)
    buffer = 1024
    idx = [size - buffer, 0].min
    chunks = []
    lines = 0

    begin
      seek(idx)
      chunk = read(buffer)
      lines += chunk.count("\n")
      chunks.unshift chunk
      idx -= buffer
    end while lines < ( n + 1 ) && pos != 0

    tail_of_file = chunks.join('')
    ary = tail_of_file.split(/\n/)
    lines_to_return = ary[ ary.size - n, ary.size - 1 ]

  end
end