copying everything from line number xxxxx to line number zzzzzz in vi editor

Question

I would like to copy a couple of screenful lines using vi editor. Anything from line number xxxx to line number zzzzz.

Then, I want to write these lines into another file.

possible duplicate of [Vim yanking range of lines](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2023015/vim-yanking-range-of-lines) — fedorqui, Feb 04 '15 at 12:04
From your comment it looks like you want to use these lines outside `vi`. Could you indicate what is your final goal? — fedorqui, Feb 04 '15 at 12:22
true, I want to copy a part of the file to another file. I don't need the first 23232 lines nor the last 7263726 lines only the middle 76337 lines. — Sanyifejű, Feb 04 '15 at 12:26
but I swear I am tempted to write a complete java io program to do this. — Sanyifejű, Feb 04 '15 at 12:29
Haha don't! And where do you want to insert those lines? At the end of a given file? — fedorqui, Feb 04 '15 at 12:29
I'd like to create a brand new file, and insert the lines there — Sanyifejű, Feb 04 '15 at 12:34

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

2

In the command mode (hit <ESC>) type:

:X,Zy

WhereX is the first line and Z is the last line.

Example

Copy lines 3 to 500:

:3,500y

To insert go to the line after which you want to instert the copies lines and hit p (lower 'P').

If you want to insert the lines befor a particular line then hit P (upper 'P').

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

answered Feb 04 '15 at 12:12

Sebastian Stigler

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '15 at 12:40

If you want to do this in vi then you can use:

:XXX,ZZZy<enter>

However, it looks like you want to store these lines in another file. Then, awk comes handy:

awk 'NR==XXX,NR==ZZZ' a > new_file

If the numbers happen to be variables, use them as this:

awk -v first="$first" -v last="$last" 'NR==first,NR==last' a > new_file

Let's print a sequence of 50 numbers in the file a, each one in a different line: $ seq 50 > a

Then, we produce the output:

$ awk 'NR==5,NR==7' a > new_file
$ cat new_file
5
6
7