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From: dattier@vpnet.chi.il.us (David W. Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: need help on unix
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.153828.15839@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 18 Jun 91 15:38:28 GMT
References: <1991Jun11.004109.21966@unixg.ubc.ca> <8382@auspex.auspex.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: VPnet Public Access Unix, Villa Park, Illinois  60181-2206
Lines: 25

guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) wrote in <8382@auspex.auspex.com>:

| "sed" can do a better job; if you want to remove the first N lines, try
| "sed -n 'N-1,$p'", where "N-5" needs to be computed and literally
| inserted in the command. 

If you want to remove the first N lines, you don't need to calculate N-1 nor
N-5.  You could calculate N+1 and write

sed -n 'N+1,$p'

or calculate nothing at all, do less typing, and write

sed '1,Nd'  # assuming N is an integer written in digits

Depending on your shell, if N is in a variable, you can use something like
(in sh or ksh)

sed "1,$N d"

David Tamkin  PO Box 7002  Des Plaines IL  60018-7002  dattier@vpnet.chi.il.us
GEnie:D.W.TAMKIN  CIS:73720,1570  MCIMail:426-1818  708 518 6769  312 693 0591

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