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I have a constantly changing file and I wish to view the first n lines.Is this possible?

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Your file is being written to at the beginning ? Surely the first n lines will always be the same ? – Iain♦ May 12 '11 at 10:23

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No. Use watch with it instead.

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Specifically the usage would be: watch -n 2 head filename to check watch the head looks like every two seconds. Use watch -d to highlight differences. – Caleb May 12 '11 at 10:32

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