How to use sed to remove the last n lines of a file

Question

I want to remove some n lines from the end of a file. Can this be done using sed?

For example, to remove lines from 2 to 4, I can use

$ sed          


        

Answer 1

With the answers here you'd have already learnt that sed is not the best tool for this application.

However I do think there is a way to do this in using sed; the idea is to append N lines to hold space untill you are able read without hitting EOF. When EOF is hit, print the contents of hold space and quit.

sed -e '$!{N;N;N;N;N;N;H;}' -e x

The sed command above will omit last 5 lines.