XK0-006 System Management Practice Question
A system administrator wants to view the last 10 lines of a log file and also save those lines to another file for analysis. Which command should the administrator use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
tail -n 10 file | tee output.txt
tail -n 10 file | tee output.txt displays the last 10 lines of 'file' and writes them to 'output.txt'. Option A uses head, which shows the first lines, not the last. Option B uses cat, which outputs the entire file, not just the last 10 lines. Option D uses tee without a pipe, which is syntactically incorrect; tee reads from stdin, so it requires a pipe from tail.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
head -n 10 file | tee output.txt
Why it's wrong here
head shows first lines, not last.
- ✗
cat file | tee output.txt
Why it's wrong here
cat outputs entire file, not just last 10 lines.
- ✓
tail -n 10 file | tee output.txt
Why this is correct
Correct: tail shows last 10 lines, tee saves to file and displays.
- ✗
tee output.txt < tail -n 10 file
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect syntax; redirection order is wrong.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This XK0-006 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the XK0-006 exam.