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52

15

Is there a simple way I can echo a file, skipping the first and last lines? I was looking at piping from head into tail, but for those it seems like I would have to know the total lines from the outset. I was also looking at split, but I don't see a way to do it with that either.

text-processing

share|improve this question

edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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user394user394

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52

15

Is there a simple way I can echo a file, skipping the first and last lines? I was looking at piping from head into tail, but for those it seems like I would have to know the total lines from the outset. I was also looking at split, but I don't see a way to do it with that either.

text-processing

share|improve this question

edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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asked Nov 14 '12 at 22:18

user394user394

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 | 

Is there a simple way I can echo a file, skipping the first and last lines? I was looking at piping from head into tail, but for those it seems like I would have to know the total lines from the outset. I was also looking at split, but I don't see a way to do it with that either.

text-processing

share|improve this question

edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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asked Nov 14 '12 at 22:18

user394user394

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share|improve this question

edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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asked Nov 14 '12 at 22:18

user394user394

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share|improve this question

edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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asked Nov 14 '12 at 22:18

user394user394

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edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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edited May 25 '16 at 19:40

don_crissti

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asked Nov 14 '12 at 22:18

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5 Answers
5

active

oldest

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94

Just with sed, without any pipes :

sed '1d;$d' file.txt

NOTE

• 
  1 mean first line
  


• 
  d mean delete
  


• 
  ; is the separator for 2 commands


• 
  $ mean last line
  

share|improve this answer

edited Nov 18 '12 at 12:22

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

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 | 

36

You don't need to know the number of lines in advance. tail and head can take an offset from the beginning or end of the file respectively.

This pipe starts at the second line of the file (skipping the first line) and stops at the last but one (skipping the final line). To skip more than one line at the beginning or end, adjust the numbers accordingly.

tail -n +2 file.txt | head -n -1

doing it the other way round, works the same, of course:

head -n -1 file.txt | tail -n +2

share|improve this answer

edited May 13 '16 at 12:52

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I don't know why, but head -n -1 removes the first AND the last line of my .txt file, on Ubuntu 14.04.2LTS.
  
  – Sopalajo de Arrierez
  Dec 22 '15 at 23:20
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment
 | 

9

Here is how to do it with awk:

awk 'NR>2 {print t} {t=$0}'

Also another way for sed:

sed '1d;x' file.txt

x is advanced sed command, it switches current line with the previous one: current goes into the buffer and previous goes to the screen and so on while sed processing stream line by line (this is why the first line will be blank).

awk solution on each step (line) puts current line into the variable and starts printing it out only after the second line is passed by. Thus, we got shitfed sequence of lines on the screen from the second to the last but one. Last line is omitted becasue the line is in the variable and should be printed only on the next step, but all steps already run out and we never see the line on the screen.

Same idea in the perl:

perl -ne 'print $t if $.>2 ; $t=$_' file.txt

$. stands for line number and $_ for current line.
perl -n is shortcut for while(<..>) {..} structure and -e is for inline script.

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

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add a comment
 | 

2

In python i would do like this.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import re

import sys

file = sys.argv[1]

with open(file, 'r') as f:

    L = []

    for line in f:

        line = re.sub(r'n', r'', line)

        L.append(line)

    print('n'.join(L[1:-1]))

Paste the above code into a file and name it as script.py. Run the script against the file you want to check with.

python3 script.py /path/to/the/file

Example:

$ cat file

foo

apple

banana

bar

$ python3 script.py file

apple

banana

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

2

For Mac users:

On Mac, head -n -1 doesn't work. Instead, reverse the file, chop off the first line, then reverse it back:

tail -r file.txt | tail -n +2 | tail -r

Explanation:

1. tail -r : reverses the order of lines in its input




2. tail -n +2 : prints all the lines starting from the second line in its input

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

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answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

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add a comment
 | 

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94

Just with sed, without any pipes :

sed '1d;$d' file.txt

NOTE

• 
  1 mean first line
  


• 
  d mean delete
  


• 
  ; is the separator for 2 commands


• 
  $ mean last line
  

share|improve this answer

edited Nov 18 '12 at 12:22

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

94

Just with sed, without any pipes :

sed '1d;$d' file.txt

NOTE

• 
  1 mean first line
  


• 
  d mean delete
  


• 
  ; is the separator for 2 commands


• 
  $ mean last line
  

share|improve this answer

edited Nov 18 '12 at 12:22

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

Just with sed, without any pipes :

sed '1d;$d' file.txt

NOTE

• 
  1 mean first line
  


• 
  d mean delete
  


• 
  ; is the separator for 2 commands


• 
  $ mean last line
  

share|improve this answer

edited Nov 18 '12 at 12:22

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

sed '1d;$d' file.txt

share|improve this answer

edited Nov 18 '12 at 12:22

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:24

Gilles QuenotGilles Quenot

17.4k22 gold badges4242 silver badges5454 bronze badges

36

You don't need to know the number of lines in advance. tail and head can take an offset from the beginning or end of the file respectively.

This pipe starts at the second line of the file (skipping the first line) and stops at the last but one (skipping the final line). To skip more than one line at the beginning or end, adjust the numbers accordingly.

tail -n +2 file.txt | head -n -1

doing it the other way round, works the same, of course:

head -n -1 file.txt | tail -n +2

share|improve this answer

edited May 13 '16 at 12:52

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I don't know why, but head -n -1 removes the first AND the last line of my .txt file, on Ubuntu 14.04.2LTS.
  
  – Sopalajo de Arrierez
  Dec 22 '15 at 23:20
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment
 | 

36

You don't need to know the number of lines in advance. tail and head can take an offset from the beginning or end of the file respectively.

This pipe starts at the second line of the file (skipping the first line) and stops at the last but one (skipping the final line). To skip more than one line at the beginning or end, adjust the numbers accordingly.

tail -n +2 file.txt | head -n -1

doing it the other way round, works the same, of course:

head -n -1 file.txt | tail -n +2

share|improve this answer

edited May 13 '16 at 12:52

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I don't know why, but head -n -1 removes the first AND the last line of my .txt file, on Ubuntu 14.04.2LTS.
  
  – Sopalajo de Arrierez
  Dec 22 '15 at 23:20
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment
 | 

You don't need to know the number of lines in advance. tail and head can take an offset from the beginning or end of the file respectively.

This pipe starts at the second line of the file (skipping the first line) and stops at the last but one (skipping the final line). To skip more than one line at the beginning or end, adjust the numbers accordingly.

tail -n +2 file.txt | head -n -1

doing it the other way round, works the same, of course:

head -n -1 file.txt | tail -n +2

share|improve this answer

edited May 13 '16 at 12:52

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

tail -n +2 file.txt | head -n -1

head -n -1 file.txt | tail -n +2

share|improve this answer

edited May 13 '16 at 12:52

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

answered Nov 14 '12 at 22:22

Olaf DietscheOlaf Dietsche

1,09588 silver badges1111 bronze badges

9

Here is how to do it with awk:

awk 'NR>2 {print t} {t=$0}'

Also another way for sed:

sed '1d;x' file.txt

x is advanced sed command, it switches current line with the previous one: current goes into the buffer and previous goes to the screen and so on while sed processing stream line by line (this is why the first line will be blank).

awk solution on each step (line) puts current line into the variable and starts printing it out only after the second line is passed by. Thus, we got shitfed sequence of lines on the screen from the second to the last but one. Last line is omitted becasue the line is in the variable and should be printed only on the next step, but all steps already run out and we never see the line on the screen.

Same idea in the perl:

perl -ne 'print $t if $.>2 ; $t=$_' file.txt

$. stands for line number and $_ for current line.
perl -n is shortcut for while(<..>) {..} structure and -e is for inline script.

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

9

Here is how to do it with awk:

awk 'NR>2 {print t} {t=$0}'

Also another way for sed:

sed '1d;x' file.txt

x is advanced sed command, it switches current line with the previous one: current goes into the buffer and previous goes to the screen and so on while sed processing stream line by line (this is why the first line will be blank).

awk solution on each step (line) puts current line into the variable and starts printing it out only after the second line is passed by. Thus, we got shitfed sequence of lines on the screen from the second to the last but one. Last line is omitted becasue the line is in the variable and should be printed only on the next step, but all steps already run out and we never see the line on the screen.

Same idea in the perl:

perl -ne 'print $t if $.>2 ; $t=$_' file.txt

$. stands for line number and $_ for current line.
perl -n is shortcut for while(<..>) {..} structure and -e is for inline script.

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

Here is how to do it with awk:

awk 'NR>2 {print t} {t=$0}'

Also another way for sed:

sed '1d;x' file.txt

x is advanced sed command, it switches current line with the previous one: current goes into the buffer and previous goes to the screen and so on while sed processing stream line by line (this is why the first line will be blank).

awk solution on each step (line) puts current line into the variable and starts printing it out only after the second line is passed by. Thus, we got shitfed sequence of lines on the screen from the second to the last but one. Last line is omitted becasue the line is in the variable and should be printed only on the next step, but all steps already run out and we never see the line on the screen.

Same idea in the perl:

perl -ne 'print $t if $.>2 ; $t=$_' file.txt

$. stands for line number and $_ for current line.
perl -n is shortcut for while(<..>) {..} structure and -e is for inline script.

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

awk 'NR>2 {print t} {t=$0}'

sed '1d;x' file.txt

perl -ne 'print $t if $.>2 ; $t=$_' file.txt

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

answered Nov 18 '14 at 13:02

rookrook

53711 gold badge88 silver badges1515 bronze badges

2

In python i would do like this.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import re

import sys

file = sys.argv[1]

with open(file, 'r') as f:

    L = []

    for line in f:

        line = re.sub(r'n', r'', line)

        L.append(line)

    print('n'.join(L[1:-1]))

Paste the above code into a file and name it as script.py. Run the script against the file you want to check with.

python3 script.py /path/to/the/file

Example:

$ cat file

foo

apple

banana

bar

$ python3 script.py file

apple

banana

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

2

In python i would do like this.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import re

import sys

file = sys.argv[1]

with open(file, 'r') as f:

    L = []

    for line in f:

        line = re.sub(r'n', r'', line)

        L.append(line)

    print('n'.join(L[1:-1]))

Paste the above code into a file and name it as script.py. Run the script against the file you want to check with.

python3 script.py /path/to/the/file

Example:

$ cat file

foo

apple

banana

bar

$ python3 script.py file

apple

banana

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

In python i would do like this.

#!/usr/bin/python3

import re

import sys

file = sys.argv[1]

with open(file, 'r') as f:

    L = []

    for line in f:

        line = re.sub(r'n', r'', line)

        L.append(line)

    print('n'.join(L[1:-1]))

Paste the above code into a file and name it as script.py. Run the script against the file you want to check with.

python3 script.py /path/to/the/file

Example:

$ cat file

foo

apple

banana

bar

$ python3 script.py file

apple

banana

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

#!/usr/bin/python3

import re

import sys

file = sys.argv[1]

with open(file, 'r') as f:

    L = []

    for line in f:

        line = re.sub(r'n', r'', line)

        L.append(line)

    print('n'.join(L[1:-1]))

python3 script.py /path/to/the/file

$ cat file

foo

apple

banana

bar

$ python3 script.py file

apple

banana

share|improve this answer

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

answered Nov 18 '14 at 15:40

Avinash RajAvinash Raj

2,70233 gold badges1212 silver badges2828 bronze badges

2

For Mac users:

On Mac, head -n -1 doesn't work. Instead, reverse the file, chop off the first line, then reverse it back:

tail -r file.txt | tail -n +2 | tail -r

Explanation:

1. tail -r : reverses the order of lines in its input




2. tail -n +2 : prints all the lines starting from the second line in its input

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

2

For Mac users:

On Mac, head -n -1 doesn't work. Instead, reverse the file, chop off the first line, then reverse it back:

tail -r file.txt | tail -n +2 | tail -r

Explanation:

1. tail -r : reverses the order of lines in its input




2. tail -n +2 : prints all the lines starting from the second line in its input

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges

add a comment
 | 

For Mac users:

On Mac, head -n -1 doesn't work. Instead, reverse the file, chop off the first line, then reverse it back:

tail -r file.txt | tail -n +2 | tail -r

Explanation:

1. tail -r : reverses the order of lines in its input




2. tail -n +2 : prints all the lines starting from the second line in its input

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges

tail -r file.txt | tail -n +2 | tail -r

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

edited 1 hour ago

user664833

13244 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges

answered Oct 16 '16 at 4:01

Sarfraaz AhmedSarfraaz Ahmed

12122 bronze badges