read in file

[Bhoyet Orillo]

Is there a way to read a specified number of bytes in
a file using a script?

[Steven Sim Kok Leong · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Following will read just the first 8 bytes from your input file (whether in binary or text).

# dd if=input_file bs=1 count=8

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Bhoyet Orillo]

Thanks for that quick reply. But where does the read bytes go. Is there an internal buffer?

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

You can redirect the read bytes either to a file (use -of option or > redirection) or you can pipe it somewhere else (use |). If neither is used, it will be displayed as STDOUT.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

You can also capture it directly into a variable of your choice. For instance:

# X=`dd if=/etc/hosts bs=1 count=60`
# echo $X

Regards!

...JRF...