cut lines from file
There is no GNU tool specifically designed to extract lines from file by number. I find sed too complicated for this simple task. On the other end, head and tail are not versatile enough. cutl is written in Perl and takes many ideas from it (I.E. negative numbers count from the end of file, ellipsis '..' create ranges, etc). cutl follows the UNIX philosophy or doing one thing, and doing it well. cutl isn't superfast, but tries to be fast enough, even with big files.
Just move the script cut_lines.pl somewhere in your path (maybe $HOME/bin), and add an alias in your '.bashrc'
alias cutl=cut_lines.pl
or
alias cutl="cut_lines.pl -z" To count lines from zero, instead of one.
cutl has a short help (cutl -h). This would be a simple use example:
# Extract range 0 to 3, lines 8, 6, and range -5 to end (last 5 lines of file).
%> seq 1 15 | cutl -l..3,8,6,-5..
Negate the list with -v:
# Extract all lines **except** range 2 to 5, and lines 8 and 11
%> seq 1 15 | cutl -v -l2..5,8,11
Read list from a file with -f:
%> cat mylist.txt
6,11 9..12
6 8
# Extract lines 6, 11, range 9 to 12, lines 6, 8
%> seq 1 15 | cutl -f mylist.txt
Sample random lines with -s (sorted) or -S (unsorted):
# Extract 20 random lines
%> seq 1 1000 | cutl -s 20
I would be grateful if you tell me of any bugs or suggestions by raising an Issue.