Cut-file-content-from-line-to-line.md

• Date : 2018-03-25
• Tags : #sysadmin #file #string

Cut file content from line to line

In case you have a big file which contains a lot of content (2+ GB). And you only need a small part from the file (the part is continuous string from line X to line Y).

You have many ways to achieve that :

1. Use vi editor and delete from line 1 to line (X-1) by press [X-1]dd then go to line (Y-X+2) and delete to last line by press dG
2. Use sed -n '[X][Y]p' [input_file] > [output_file]. Example : sed -n '15,68p' a.sql > b.sql
3. Use head and tail trick : head -n[Y] [input_file] | tail -n[Y-X+1] > [output_file]

I personally recommend using the sed way, it's faster and simpler to remember.