slicefile

#!/usr/bin/env python

# Extract a slice from a file or stdin.  Uses zero indexing.
# Usage: slicefile start end [filenames]
#   e.g. slicefile 3 10 testfile
#   ---> output lines 4-11 from testfile to stdout
#   e.g. zcat x.gz | slicefile 100 200
#   ---> output lines 101-201 from stdin to stdout

# Author: David McClosky
# Homepage: http://zorglish.org
# Code: http://github.com/dmcc

import sys
import fileinput

start = int(sys.argv[1])
end = int(sys.argv[2])
files = sys.argv[3:]

for i, line in enumerate(fileinput.input(files)):
    if i < start:
        continue
    elif i > end:
        break
    else:
        sys.stdout.write(line)