Unix cat starting from line

Question

What is the best way to output from a file starting from a specific line (big number like 70000). Something like:

cat --line=70000 <file>

Answer 1

Take a look at tail, more precisecly, it's --lines=+N switch:

tail --lines=+100 <file>

Answer 2

The most obvious way is tail, the syntax might be slightly different depending on what OS you are using:

tail -n +70000

If you can not get tail to work, you could use sed, but it might end up slower.

sed -pe '1,69999d'

Answer 3

If instead of a line number you need to start listing at the line containing a given $phrase, try the following.

more -1000 +/"$phrase" yourfilename | sed '1,4d'

The -1000 will continuously list text for up to 1000 lines; you can change this as needed. The sed command will chop off the first 4 lines of output, which were automatically inserted by more, containing a blank line, the message "... skipping", and the two lines preceding your intended starting line. I guess this may vary depending on your system.

Answer 4

tail +250

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