head replacement on Windows (16 Jun 2009)

A co-worker needed to convert a Cygwin-dependent script to something that runs on a bare-bones Windows system. The interesting part was finding a replacement for the good ol' head command-line utility.

Fortunately, this is fairly simple using a few lines of VBScript and the Windows Scripting Host. First, here's the VBScript code:

headlines = WScript.Arguments(0)
Do Until WScript.stdin.AtEndOfStream Or headlines=0
  WScript.Echo WScript.stdin.ReadLine
  headlines = headlines-1
Loop

This is an extremely stripped-down version of head's original functionality, of course. For example, the code above can only read from standard input. Oh, and: Command-line argument validation and parsing left as an exercise for the reader big grin

Assuming you'd save the above into a file called head.vbs, this is how you would display the first three lines of a text file called someinputfile.txt:

   type someinputfile.txt | cscript /nologo head.vbs 3

Enjoy!



When asked for a TWiki account, use your own or the default TWikiGuest account.



to top

You are here: Blog > DefinePrivatePublic20090616HeadUtilityOnWindows

r1.1 - 16 Jun 2009 - 18:33 - ClausBrod to top

Blog
This site
RSS

  2017: 12 - 11 - 10
  2016: 10 - 7 - 3
  2015: 11 - 10 - 9 - 4 - 1
  2014: 5
  2013: 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5
  2012: 2 - 10
  2011: 1 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 12
  2010: 11 - 10 - 9 - 4
  2009: 11 - 9 - 8 - 7 -
     6 - 5 - 4 - 3
  2008: 5 - 4 - 3 - 1
  2007: 12 - 8 - 7 - 6 -
     5 - 4 - 3 - 1
  2006: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1
  2005: 12 - 6 - 5 - 4
  2004: 12 - 11 - 10
  C++
  CoCreate Modeling
  COM & .NET
  Java
  Mac
  Lisp
  OpenSource
  Scripting
  Windows
  Stuff
Changes
Index
Search
Maintenance
Impressum
Datenschutzerklärung
Home



Jump:

Copyright © 1999-2024 by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback