developerWorks: Reading Text Streams in Chunks With head and tail | Linux Today

developerWorks: Reading Text Streams in Chunks With head and tail

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Nov 26, 2002

Suppose you want to process only a part of some file, say a few
lines from the start or end of it. What can you do? Use either head
(which sends the first 10 lines to the standard output) or tail
(which sends the last 10 lines to the standard output).

“You can change the number of lines that these commands send to
their standard output with the -n option (of course, your results
will vary depending on the contents of your XF86Config file)..”


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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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