diff --git a/nvm.sh b/nvm.sh
index 7c183b83..cee89bd9 100755
--- a/nvm.sh
+++ b/nvm.sh
@@ -893,9 +893,10 @@ all non-commented content (anything after # is a comment) must be either:
 additionally, a single bare nvm-recognized version-ish must be present (after stripping comments)."
 
   # show control characters (other than tabs and newlines) as `?`, so the parsed content is printed as plain text
+  # and only show an excerpt: a real .nvmrc is short, and showing all of a long file only helps to disclose it
   local warn_text
   warn_text="non-commented content parsed:
-$(nvm_echo "${1}" | command tr '\001-\010\013-\037\177' '??????????????????????????????')"
+$(nvm_echo "${1-}" | command tr '\001-\010\013-\037\177' '??????????????????????????????' | command awk 'NR > 10 { print "[...]"; exit } { if (length($0) > 100) { print substr($0, 1, 100) "[...]" } else { print } }')"
 
   nvm_err "$(nvm_wrap_with_color_code 'r' "${error_text}")
 
diff --git a/test/fast/Unit tests/nvm_nvmrc_invalid_msg shows a bounded excerpt b/test/fast/Unit tests/nvm_nvmrc_invalid_msg shows a bounded excerpt
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..d0550bfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fast/Unit tests/nvm_nvmrc_invalid_msg shows a bounded excerpt	
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+die () { echo "$@" ; exit 1; }
+
+: nvm.sh
+\. ../../../nvm.sh
+
+\. ../../common.sh
+
+LONG_LINE='aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTAIL'
+CONTENT="${LONG_LINE}
+2
+3
+4
+5
+6
+7
+8
+9
+10
+eleventh"
+
+try_err nvm_nvmrc_invalid_msg "${CONTENT}"
+EXCERPT="$(nvm_echo "${CAPTURED_STDERR}" | strip_colors | sed -n '/^non-commented content parsed:$/,$p')"
+EXPECTED="non-commented content parsed:
+aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa[...]
+2
+3
+4
+5
+6
+7
+8
+9
+10
+[...]"
+
+[ "${EXCERPT}" = "${EXPECTED}" ] || die "expected >${EXPECTED}<; got >${EXCERPT}<"