Extract a range of lines from stdin and print to stdout.

head2tail.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Extract a range of lines from stdin and print to stdout.
#
# Usage:
#
#   head2tail.sh  starting-line  [number-of-lines]
#
# Example:
#
#   - Extract lines 10--16 from input-file:
#     $ cat input-file | head2tail.sh  10  6
#
# @see http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/47407/cat-line-x-to-line-y-on-a-huge-file/47414#47414
#


STARTING_LINE=$1
NUMBER_OF_LINES=${2:-9876543210}


if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then
    echo "Extract a range of lines from stdin and print to stdout.."
    echo "Usage: head2tail.sh  starting-line  [number-of-lines]"
    exit 1
fi


#  < inputfile  tail -n +"10" | head -n "6"  >  outputfile
tail -n +"${STARTING_LINE}" | head -n "${NUMBER_OF_LINES}"