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nl(1)

HP-UX 11i Version 3: February 2007
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NAME

nl — line numbering filter

SYNOPSIS

nl [-b type] [-h type] [-f type] [-p] [-v start#] [-i incr] [-s sep] [-w width] [-n format] [-l num] [-d delim] [file]

DESCRIPTION

nl reads lines from the named file or the standard input if no file is named and reproduces the lines on the standard output. Lines are numbered on the left in accordance with the command options in effect.

nl views the text it reads in terms of logical pages. Line numbering is reset at the start of each logical page. A logical page consists of a header, a body, and a footer section. Empty sections are valid. Different line numbering options are independently available for header, body, and footer (e.g., no numbering of header and footer lines while numbering blank lines only in the body).

The start of logical page sections are signaled by input lines containing nothing but the following delimiter character(s):

Line contentsStart of
\:\:\:header
\:\:body
\:footer

Unless told otherwise, nl assumes the text being read is in a single logical page body.

Command options can appear in any order and can be intermingled with an optional file name. Only one file can be named. nl recognizes the following options:

-btype

Specifies which logical page body lines are to be numbered. Recognized types and their meanings are:

a

number all lines;

t

number lines with printable text only;

n

no line numbering;

pstring

number only lines that contain the regular expression specified in string. Basic Regular Expression syntax is supported (see regexp(5)).

The default type for logical page body is t (text lines numbered).

-htype

Same as -btype except for header. Default type for logical page header is n (no lines numbered).

-ftype

Same as -btype except for footer. Default for logical page footer is n (no lines numbered).

-p

Do not restart numbering at logical page delimiters.

-vstart#

start# is the initial value used to number logical page lines. Default is 1.

-iincr

incr is the increment value used to number logical page lines. Default is 1.

-ssep

sep is the character or characters used in separating the line number and the corresponding text line. Default sep is a tab.

-wwidth

width is the number of character columns to be used for the line number. Default width is 6.

-nformat

format is the line numbering format. Recognized values are:

ln

left justified, leading zeroes suppressed;

rn

right justified, leading zeroes suppressed;

rz

right justified, leading zeroes kept.

Default format is rn (right justified).

-lnum

num is the number of consecutive blank lines to be treated and numbered as a single line. For example, -l3 results in every third adjacent blank line being numbered if the appropriate -ha, -ba, and/or -fa option is set. Default is 1.

-dxx

The delimiter characters specifying the start of a logical page section can be changed from the default characters (\:) to two user-specified characters. If only one character is entered, the second character remains the default character (:). No space should appear between the -d and the delimiter characters, however, this restriction is not there for UNIX Standard (see standards(5)) compliant nl. To define a backslash as the delimiter, use two backslashes.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

For information about the UNIX Standard environment, see standards(5).

Environment Variables

LC_COLLATE determines the collating sequence used in evaluating regular expressions.

LC_CTYPE determines the characters matched by character class expressions in regular expressions.

If LC_COLLATE or LC_CTYPE is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG.

If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, nl behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5).

International Code Set Support

Single-byte character code sets are supported.

EXAMPLES

Number file1 starting at line number 10, using an increment of ten. The logical page delimiters are ! and +:

nl -v10 -i10 -d!+ file1

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

nl: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4

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