Windows batch command(s) to read first line from text file

uh? imo this is much simpler

  set /p texte=< file.txt  
  echo %texte%

Here's a general-purpose batch file to print the top n lines from a file like the GNU head utility, instead of just a single line.

@echo off

if [%1] == [] goto usage
if [%2] == [] goto usage

call :print_head %1 %2
goto :eof

REM
REM print_head
REM Prints the first non-blank %1 lines in the file %2.
REM
:print_head
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set /a counter=0

for /f ^"usebackq^ eol^=^

^ delims^=^" %%a in (%2) do (
        if "!counter!"=="%1" goto :eof
        echo %%a
        set /a counter+=1
)

goto :eof

:usage
echo Usage: head.bat COUNT FILENAME

For example:

Z:\>head 1 "test file.c"
; this is line 1

Z:\>head 3 "test file.c"
; this is line 1
    this is line 2
line 3 right here

It does not currently count blank lines. It is also subject to the batch-file line-length restriction of 8 KB.

Uh you guys...

C:\>findstr /n . c:\boot.ini | findstr ^1:

1:[boot loader]

C:\>findstr /n . c:\boot.ini | findstr ^3:

3:default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT

C:\>