BAT file to read and copy bottom 16 lines from a text file to another one?

Question

I need to copy the bottom 16 lines from a text file to another text file. I need to do this procedure for all clients. At the client's location the text file will be common but the bottom 16 lines is important for confirmation of package installation.

Answer 1

The more command can be used to extract the last n lines. If a file, someFile.txt, contains 2000 lines then the last 16 lines can be extracted with:

    more /e +1984 someFile.txt > lastLines.txt

The number of lines in someFile.txt can found as:

    for /f %%i in ('find /v /c "" ^< someFile.txt') do set /a lines=%%i

The call of more then becomes:

    set /a startLine=%lines% - 16
    more /e +%startLine% someFile.txt > lastLines.txt

Answer 2

You can download DOS ports of most Unix commands (for example here - pick any set of commands you like that includes tail)

After downloading, simply use tail -16 filename.txt

The benefit (to offset the effort of downloading/unpacking) is that you get a whole BUNDLE of really good Unix command line tools to use.