how to remove first line from a huge text file - windows cmd

Question

how to remove first line in a super huge text file (min lines: 65536), using CMD (without any installing)?

example input file:

line1
line2
line3
line4

output file after I run the CMD:

line2
line3
line4

I have tried

more +1 "input.txt" > "output.txt"

but the max limit line in text file is 65535.

thank you all in advanced.

ps: super newbie in coding scripting.

Please read [this](https://stackoverflow.com/q/71841990), to get a better idea of how you may be able to do it using the built-in PowerShell, and any potential issues with those methodologies. — Compo, Oct 21 '22 at 10:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 26 '22 at 17:31

0

It is not the most efficient way in CMD, but this should work in Powershell:

get-content input.txt | select -Skip 1 | set-content "output.txt"

edited Oct 26 '22 at 17:31

Keivan

1,300
1
16
29

answered Oct 21 '22 at 10:27

JhonnyG

1
3

I woud advise not to use this answer. JhonnyG, please take a look at the question and answers I linked in my [comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74151805/how-to-remove-first-line-from-a-huge-text-file-windows-cmd#comment130920894_74151805), to see why. – Compo Oct 21 '22 at 10:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 21 '22 at 16:11

SET "sourcedir=u:\your files"
SET "destdir=u:\your results"
SET "filename1=%sourcedir%\hugefile.txt"
SET "outfile=%destdir%\outfile.txt"

(
FOR /f "skip=1usebackqeol=|delims=" %%b IN ("%filename1%") DO ECHO %%b
)>"%outfile%"

FC "%filename1%" "%outfile%"

Some cautions:

empty lines will be ignored

I've used eol=| to set the end-of-line character to |. Any line containing | is deemed to terminate at |. The default end-of-line character is ;.

Worked for me with 150,000 lines of "normalish" text - not containing the more rarely-used symbols.

how to remove first line from a huge text file - windows cmd

2 Answers2