If the file is small, then the above answer by
le is
acceptable.
If you expect the file to be large (such as log file)
and you know the approximate format of the file (e.g. the lines
tend to have max width of 80 characters), then you can use
seek(-81,2) and then use the above solution to get the
last 1.5 lines.
You might want to check if it contains a newline, as otherwise
you probably need to read more.
Here is a code snippet:
open (F,"the file");
seek(F,-81,2);
while(<F>) { $l=$_}
warn if $.<1; # Make sure we read more than one line