How to delete everything after the 5th line with awk? [duplicate]

Question

How to delete everything in a file after 5th line using awk?

I can do it by sed, but these days I am moving from sed to awk.

You can't say "I'm moving to awk". That would be like saying "I'm starting to see the benefits of a hammer over a screwdriver. I think I'll be using the hammer from now on." It doesn't make sense. — Kusalananda
– Kusalananda ♦, Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 7:57

Rakesh Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-21 03:42:37Z

awk 'NR > 5{exit}1' yourfile

would quit "awk" as soon as the 6th line is reached. But prior to that, the default action would apply, thereby printing lines 1..5.

jordanm · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-21 06:11:44Z

2

awk 'NR <= 5' inputfile would do it (it prints whenever NR, the record number, is less than or equal to five.

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answered Feb 21, 2017 at 3:28

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