Bash command to cut output after x number of lines

Question

I'm looking for a bash command, which I can use to limit the number of lines of a file or another command output. E.g.

ls -thor | limit 10

would limit the output of the ls command to 10 lines (in the example, the command "limit" is naturally a imaginary command, whose equivalent I'm looking for). Is there such command, or a related solution?

score 68 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 02 '14 at 11:05

68

Use head:

ls -l | head -n 15

10 lines is the default. Read the head man page for more options.

(older versions of head also support usage without the explicit -n as in head -15)

edited Jul 02 '14 at 11:05

Cristian Ciupitu

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answered Sep 11 '09 at 11:17

Doug Harris

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beat me to it :) – warren Sep 11 '09 at 11:18
Thx. I should have figured it out, it's obvious when you know that there is a "tail" command.. :) – simon Sep 11 '09 at 11:29
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Syntax -integer is (at least in GNU version of head/tail discouraged - you should be using -n 15) – Sep 11 '09 at 11:51
I didn't know that. Old habits die hard. I'll have to try to learn that. – Doug Harris Sep 11 '09 at 13:49
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The current GNU Coreutils version `head` accepts `head -15` (but only if it's the first argument). The document describes this option as obsolete. – Keith Thompson Jan 15 '12 at 16:20

Bash command to cut output after x number of lines

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