decimating a HUGE file 1

[isileth]

Guys -
Got a massive 5 column file - I need to basically create a new file with every nth line from the original. I'm fairly new to awk and have left all my course notes and reference manuals at home!
Any help would be appreciated

Cheers.

 

[grega]

Not sure what you mean, but for example if you wanted every 3rd line from the file, then you could do

awk 'NR % 3 == 0 {print}' myfile > newfile

If you need something else then post back.

Greg.