Read from text file misses first line

davewg · #1 (**permalink**) 03-12-2009

Hi!

I need to read in the first line from a text file (which will only ever have one line in it), so I tried this....

while read line
do
echo $line
done < $file

But this wasn't returning anything. So I tired a different file, which had multiple lines of text in it, and it returned each line apart from the first!

How do I just read out the first line?

Thanks in advance...
davewg

zaxxon · #2 (**permalink**) 03-12-2009

Code:

head -1 infile

davewg · #3 (**permalink**) 03-12-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by zaxxon

Code:

head -1 infile

Perfect! Thank you for such a quick solution

More UNIX and Linux Forum Topics You Might Find Helpful
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
I need suggestion on problem read a file line by line and do stuff	madi3d8	Shell Programming and Scripting	3	01-15-2009 11:33 AM
Search text from a file and print text and one previous line too	kamranjalal	Shell Programming and Scripting	6	01-06-2009 03:27 AM
How to insert some constant text at beginig of each line within a text file.	Muhammad Afzal	Shell Programming and Scripting	4	10-30-2008 11:01 PM
Adding specific text and spaces to each line in a text file	hertingm	Shell Programming and Scripting	4	08-25-2008 03:34 PM
How to read from a file line by line and do stuff	spaceship	Shell Programming and Scripting	4	03-17-2005 09:47 PM

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:


	Powered by