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Re-write first line of a file before printing

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# 1  
Old 05-06-2008
Re-write first line of a file before printing
Morning All,

Quite a simple one this, I hope. What I want to do is to re-write the first line of a file before it's sent to print. The line will be blank initially, and I want to insert some text. The operation can either be done on the file itself (modifying the file on disk), OR in a stream-editing fashion (sed, et. al) - I don't care.

Note that I've already ruled out ed as the files may exceed the 128,000 char limit ed imposes (if I'm reading the man page correctly).

My environment is ksh on AIX 5.x - so standard stuff only please!

Thanks and regards,

Alex
# 2  
Old 05-06-2008
You can do something like:

Code:
awk 'NR==1{$0="Your message"}{print}' file

Regards
# 3  
Old 05-06-2008
Thanks, Franklin52!
Cheers for that - worked a treat.

*note to self - learn awk properly*
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