[Request] Copying a file with cp except for the last one or two lines.

WideMind · May 24, 2012, 8:07am

Hi folks! I'm new to the unix-side of the world! and I'm trying to learn as much as possible the good stuff that's in it!
So.. here comes the point.. as you can see in the title, I need to copy a file but truncating it so that last 1-2 lines are not copied... any suggests from the mastercoders?

ningy · May 24, 2012, 8:25am

i dont think cp has any option to copy like that directly. As a workaround you could do something like below

to copy except last line :

cat souce_file | sed '$d' > dest_file

to copy except last two lines :

cat souce_file | sed '$d' |sed '$d'  > dest_file

elixir_sinari · May 24, 2012, 9:09am

Any reason for skipping the last 1-2 lines? Are these "special" in some way from the other lines?

cero · May 24, 2012, 9:15am

With GNU-head the syntax for copying and cutting the last 2 lines:

head -n-2 source_file >dest_file

WideMind · May 24, 2012, 9:33am

ningy:

i dont think cp has any option to copy like that directly. As a workaround you could do something like below

to copy except last line :
cat souce_file | sed '$d' > dest_file
to copy except last two lines :
cat souce_file | sed '$d' |sed '$d'  > dest_file

Nice workaround.. what does sed $d do? I can't get it.. (my bad)

Sure

Ohhh yeah, that's just what I was looking for!

elixir_sinari · May 24, 2012, 10:12am

$ is the address of the last line of input and d is for deleting the pattern (which in this case is none..so delete the entire line)

Corona688 · May 24, 2012, 10:18am

ningy:

i dont think cp has any option to copy like that directly. As a workaround you could do something like below

to copy except last line :
cat souce_file | sed '$d' > dest_file
to copy except last two lines :
cat souce_file | sed '$d' |sed '$d'  > dest_file

You get a Useless Use of Cat Award.