Read last n lines of file (tail) without reading it line-by-line? [duplicate]

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Get last n lines of a file w开发者_StackOverflow社区ith Python, similar to tail

Hello,

How can I have Python return the last n lines of a file without reading it line by line?

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Something like this:

• Use seek() to get something like the last 4096 bytes of a file.
• See how many newlines you have in those bytes. If you have n or more, then you're done. If you have fewer, then read the previous 4096 bytes until you're done.

Not sure if there's a built-in way to do this.