How do I read first line using cat

Question

How do i read the first line of a file using cat?

Answer 1

You don't, use head instead.

head -n 1 file.txt

Answer 2

You dont need any external command if you have bash v4+

< file.txt mapfile -n1 && echo ${MAPFILE[0]}

or if you really want cat

cat file.txt | mapfile -n1 && echo ${MAPFILE[0]}

:)

Answer 3

There are many different ways:

sed -n 1p file
head -n 1 file
awk 'NR==1' file