Consider appending --tuples-only if you're generating this list with psql.

To your question specifically, this should do it:
cat my_tables.txt  | grep -v "\-\-\-" | grep -v ^$ | tail -n +2 | head 
-n -1

Though that uses magical hard coded characters which will get you in 
trouble later when one little thing about the output you're parsing 
changes.  

Frankly I'd use the perl DBI.

-s

Craig White wrote:
> I am trying to script reading the table info from postgres into a file.
>
> I need to get rid of the first 2 and last 2 lines and it should be easy
> but obviously cut is for grabbing bits of lines where I need to remove
> the whole line.
>
> # cat my_tables.txt
>        tablename
> -----------------------
>  engine_schema_info
>  plugin_schema_info
> ...snipped here...
>  services
> (43 rows)
>
> I need to lose the top 2 lines:
>       tablename
> ---------------
>
> and the bottom two lines
> (43 rows)
> and a blank line (though this would probably be OK)
>
> how do I accomplish via bash or coreutils (like cut)?
>
> Thanks
>
> Craig
>
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