remove lines

[rhnaeco]

I'm sure this has been answered before but i can only find answers for removing blank lines.

I would like to remove $n number of lines from the end of a file and $n number of lines from the beginning of the same file.

i.e remove 5 lines from the beginning and 2 from the end of the file.

I don't mind an answer in SED either.


thanks in advance

rhnaeco

 

[Annihilannic]

This uses a circular buffer array to store the previous lines so it can delay printing them out, so that when it reaches the end it hasn't printed the lines you want to skip.

awk -v skipstart=5 -v skipend=2 '
    NR>skipstart { 
        a[NR%(skipend+1)]=$0 
    } 
    NR>(skipstart+skipend) { 
        print a[(NR-skipend)%(skipend+1)] 
    }
' inputfile > outputfile

Annihilannic.