[chmrr@supox chmrr]$ perl -w tailbm.pl 500 100 /var/log/messages
Benchmark: timing 500 iterations of backticks, f_rb_obj, f_rb_obj_u, f_rb_tie, f_rb_tie_u, file_tail, grinder, lastn, lastn_getc, tie_file...
 backticks:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.43 usr  0.16 sys +  0.61 cusr  0.30 csys =  1.50 CPU) @ 847.46/s (n=500)
  f_rb_obj:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.71 usr +  0.04 sys =  0.75 CPU) @ 666.67/s (n=500)
f_rb_obj_u:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.77 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.77 CPU) @ 649.35/s (n=500)
  f_rb_tie:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.89 usr +  0.02 sys =  0.91 CPU) @ 549.45/s (n=500)
f_rb_tie_u:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.91 usr +  0.02 sys =  0.93 CPU) @ 537.63/s (n=500)
 file_tail:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.47 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.48 CPU) @ 337.84/s (n=500)
   grinder: 19 wallclock secs (18.93 usr +  0.22 sys = 19.15 CPU) @ 26.11/s (n=500)
     lastn: 19 wallclock secs (14.20 usr +  4.34 sys = 18.54 CPU) @ 26.97/s (n=500)
lastn_getc: 20 wallclock secs (15.09 usr +  2.64 sys = 17.73 CPU) @ 28.20/s (n=500)
  tie_file: 143 wallclock secs (126.62 usr +  1.81 sys = 128.43 CPU) @  3.89/s (n=500)