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Copying few lines from one file to another

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# 1  
Old 01-22-2014
Copying few lines from one file to another
Hi all

I have a requirement

I need to copy only first 2 lines from a file of one location to another file of same location

I used to code as
Code:
cp head -2 abc 123

But i get the following error
cp: 0653-437 123 is not a directory.

The files used are
Code:
cat abc
ABCD
EFDG
TYUI

cat 123
1234
1ert
6789
7890

I want the output file as

ABCD
EFGD
6789
7890

Please help!!
# 2  
Old 01-22-2014
use piping
Code:
head -2 abc >a |cp a 123

# 3  
Old 01-22-2014
Refer to man cp for why the command is not working.
In short, If you provide two argument to "cp", it would copy the first file (arg1) to the second file (arg2) but If you provide more then two arg (your case), it expects the last arg to be a directory to copy all the files inside that directory. In this case, "123" is a file hence error.

You can probably use

Code:
for file in abc 123
do
 head -2 $file > new_file
done

# 4  
Old 01-22-2014
I can use a for loop

Instead is there any way in a single command where the copy operation can be done ??
# 5  
Old 01-22-2014
man head, look for -q option.
# 6  
Old 01-22-2014
You are not copying the files, you are modifying them. cp won't work. Try
Code:
head -2q abc 123

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