Terminal command for seeing the first xxx lines of a file

Question

Can you guys help me? I can't remember the terminal command to open a large text file, but only display (for example) 20 lines at a time. The reason for this is I am trying to read a 1.3gb error log file. Can somebody help me with the right command?

Thanks

Answer 1

The question heading suggests head but your body

20 lines at a time

suggests more.

Answer 2

Try man head

head -- display first lines of a file

Answer 3

head -10000 bigfile.log | tail -20 should display 20 lines around the 10000th line.

Answer 4

Try less filename.

It suits your requirement of windowing about 20 lines of a large file. A full description can be obtained with man less.

Answer 5

you can use head, less, more ,and awk

$ awk 'NR%20==0{print;getline <"-"}NR{print}' file

$ more -20 file

$ head -20 file # but only shows 20 lines and doesn't scroll.

Answer 6

Try less. It displays a few lines at a time, but allows you to scroll.

less yourfilename

Read the manual for less for more info.

Answer 7

most is the result of 20 years of fundamental research about advanced terminal paging techniques.