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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff
From: jeff@heurikon.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: 'c' shell scripts - (nf)
Message-ID: <148@heurikon.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 1-Jan-84 15:32:57 EST
Article-I.D.: heurikon.148
Posted: Sun Jan  1 15:32:57 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Jan-84 07:29:45 EST
References: <2101@fortune.UUCP>, <206@dual.UUCP>
Organization: Heurikon Corp., Madison WI
Lines: 28

> From: fair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair)
> I once used `a-truly-ugly-and-evil' way to read successive lines
> of a file for csh. Combinations of head and tail can do the trick:
> 
> # To keep the evil sh away...
> set x=1
> while ($x < ????)
> 	head -$x FILE | tail -1 (or minus however many lines you want)
> end

Sorry Erik, I think you'll have problems with big files.  At least
we would because our 'tail' has a bug: if the line number is > 99,
strange things happen.  To test, try:  "tail -nnn bigfile | wc -l"
And, you've got the same Un*x port that we do...Un*Plus+.
(Let's both report it!)

Ah!, but along the lines of your suggestion there *is* a solution!
I've had good luck using 'sed' instead of the 'head'/'tail' combination.
It's fast and flexible.  Try a varient of this:

	x=3
	oneline=`sed -n $x,"$x"p`
	echo $oneline

-- 
	Jeffrey Mattox, Heurikon Corp, Madison, WI
	{harpo, hao, philabs}!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff
	(That path is correct, desipte what the headers might show.)