Bash write first line of file

Philosophy 3. A First Script 4. Variables Part 1 5. Wildcards 6. Escape Characters 7. Loops 8. Test 9. Case Variables Part 2 Variables Part 3 External Programs Functions Hints and Tips Quick Reference Interactive Shell Exercises Contact Me.

Exercises Publications Contact Me. Shell Scripting. Books and eBooks. My Shell Scripting books, available in Paperback and eBook formats. This is not a reply to the downvote inquiry. AdamKatz that's a very nice set of ways, thanks!

I find the one with grep very smart. We can of course also say head -n 1 file. Yes, head -n1 will be faster smaller binary to load and read will be fastest no binary to load, that's a builtin.

I especially like grep -m1 --color. As previous answer. Second method doesn't work as written, because read doesn't print anything so line winds up blank , and also executes in a subshell so FIRSTLINE gets set to the first line, but only in the subshell, so it's not available afterward.

Just echo the first list of your source file into your target file. For which head -n 1 source. Alexis Wilke Goblinhack Goblinhack 2, 1 1 gold badge 22 22 silver badges 25 25 bronze badges.

Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. There are many options for such editor, so choose the one you like and enter your first command as follows:. The bash first line in script begins with a shebang! These are two mandatory characters, after which is indicated which program you are using for scripting. If you did not specify the program, bash will be used by default.

If you do not want this, enter the appropriate scripting program. If you start the script with an empty string, be aware that this is also considered a string.