#!/bin/bash # get filename echo -n "Enter File Name : " read fileName # make sure file exits for reading if [ ! -f $fileName ]; then echo "Filename $fileName does not exists" exit 1 fi # display last five lines of the file using tail command tail -5 $fileName COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT You can read file name as command line argument: #!/bin/bash # get filename fileName="$1" # make sure command line arg provided if [ -z $1 ]; then echo "Syntax: $(basename $0) filename" exit 1 fi # make sure file exits for reading if [ ! -f $fileName ]; then echo "Filename $fileName does not exists" exit 1 fi # ok display last five lines of the file using tail command tail -5 $fileName