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Accepted
ChrisInCambo
Asked: 2009-09-19 00:33:28 +0800 CST

Read the first line of a file using bash

  • 772

Does anyone know of a simple one liner to read the first line of a file in bash?

bash

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    read -r FIRSTLINE < filename

    Same result as the other answers but faster because it doesn't spawn any process, as "read" is a built-in bash command.

    • 26 
  2. head -1

    simply

    • 16 
  3. FIRSTLINE=`head -n 1 filename`

    Stores the line in a variable for later use (note the inverted apostrophes).

    • 6

  4. head -n 1 should do the trick

    • 1 
  5. awk 'NR == 1' /etc/passwd
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