Display a block of text with AWK

awk '/start_pattern/,/stop_pattern/' file.txt

I find this terribly useful for grepping through a file, looking for just a block of text. There's "grep -A # pattern file.txt" to see a specific number of lines following your pattern, but what if you want to see the whole block? Say, the output of "dmidecode" (as root): dmidecode | awk '/Battery/,/^$/' Will show me everything following the battery block up to the next block of text. Again, I find this extremely useful when I want to see whole blocks of text based on a pattern, and I don't care to see the rest of the data in output. This could be used against the '/etc/securetty/user' file on Unix to find the block of a specific user. It could be used against VirtualHosts or Directories on Apache to find specific definitions. The scenarios go on for any text formatted in a block fashion. Very handy.

By: atoponce

2009-03-28 14:28:59

awk

3 Alternatives + Submit Alt

Display a block of text with AWK
This is sample output - yours may be different.
7

sed -n /start_pattern/,/stop_pattern/p file.txt

pipping · 2009-10-24 16:35:39 8
Display a block of text: multi-line grep with perl

-n reads input, line by line, in a loop sending to $_ Equivalent to while () { mycode } -e execute the following quoted string (i.e. do the following on the same line as the perl command) the elipses .. operator behaves like a range, remembering the state from line to line.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

perl -ne 'print if /start_pattern/../stop_pattern/' file.txt

SunKing2 · 2018-07-24 03:23:12 256
Display a block of text with vim with offset, like with AWK

By using vim, you can also filter content on stdout, using vim's extra power, like search pattern offset! No more awk of course, sorry. details : -e ex mode -s silent -c 'ex command' : global + start and end pattern + offset print (p) -cq : quit Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$cat file.txt
begin
here too
start_pattern
pipo
et
molo
font
du
ski
stop_pattern
plus
more
here

$vim -e -s -c 'g/start_pattern/+1,/stop_pattern/-1 p' -cq file.txt
pipo
et
molo
font
du
ski
```
0

vim -e -s -c 'g/start_pattern/+1,/stop_pattern/-1 p' -cq file.txt

syladmin · 2009-08-26 10:22:27 6

What Others Think

Very nice. dmidecode | awk '/Core/,/^$/'

Williebee · 786 weeks and 5 days ago

Awesome! Awk is such a powerful tool and I always wish I knew it better.

philiph · 786 weeks and 5 days ago

Thanks a lot

megerdin · 786 weeks and 5 days ago

Nice! I like using this for xml files.

tajohnson · 780 weeks and 6 days ago

because your '^$' is included in the pattern it'll also be output. You can prevent the empty line being output with the following: awk '/foo/,/^$/{if ($0 > 0) print}' Also, if the data is structured in a consistant way you can set RS to the particular record, ie: awk '{RS="Cell"}/MY_AP/' which will output the particular record for the ESSID "MY_AP".

khayyam · 578 weeks and 6 days ago

hmmmm ... the last command was chomped, I assume as I used a subshell ... anyhow it should read (without subshell): iwlist wlan0 scan |awk '{RS="Cell"}/MY_AP/'

khayyam · 578 weeks and 6 days ago

Does not work

iamvivek · 474 weeks and 1 day ago

Zega Apparel offers leading services including custom clothing manufacturers USA along with cut & sew clothing services to private labels across the globe.clothing manufacturers in california custom t-shirt printing near me

williamjames · 179 weeks ago

seofox · 126 weeks and 6 days ago

seofox · 116 weeks and 1 day ago

seofox · 115 weeks and 2 days ago

steelfiber · 112 weeks and 6 days ago

WEB SEO WEB SEO WEB SEO WEB SEO

BlackJack · 90 weeks and 3 days ago

rahimhh21 · 85 weeks and 3 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 77 weeks and 2 days ago

Buy Ketamine Online For Sale USA MDMA For Sale USA Shipping Psychedelic Drugs For Sale USA DMT For Sale USA Ayahuasca For Sale Online Queensland Buy LSD Online Legally Ketamine Liquid For Sale Buy Ketamine Pills Online Delivery Buy 100 A+++ Golden Philip Plien XTC 300mg Online Buy mushrooms edibles Online

medicalhouse25 · 70 weeks and 5 days ago

Buy Weed Online USA Shipping Discreet Buy Tko Marijuana Strain Online Shipping USA Buy DELTA-8 PRE ROLLS Online Delta 8 THC Carts For Sale Edibles For Sale, Buy TKO Edibles Online "rel="dofollow">Buy TKO Carts And TKO Extracts Online

Hippieshome55 · 69 weeks and 5 days ago

If you check our prices, you’ll notice they are really affordable. Plus, you can always get a discount! That doesn’t mean we’ll sacrifice the quality for the sake of offering a lower price. Get coursework writing service. The ball shows you two outcomes. One of the outcomes is that you procrastinate and complete the paper the same day it is due. In this visualisation, you can get assignment writing service in a panicked stated, where you are just rushing to add words on the page. As a result, you compromise the quality of the work, and the grade you receive is low. In such situations, you can apply the ten-minute rule, which states that you can endure any difficult situation for just ten minutes. By thinking this, you can continue writing your project for ten minutes. However, when the ten-minute time frame is completed, you can spend another ten minutes on the project as you realise your potential to work continuously for ten minutes. thesis writing service cycle can be repeated until your project is completed. Sometimes you do not want to attempt the academic project because it is too overwhelming to look at. Even if you persuade yourself to do it, looking at the amount of work that needs to be done reduces your motivation to attempt the dissertation writing service. In this case, you can invest some time in breaking the task down and creating a schedule to complete each component of the essay writing service. One of the motivating factors for any human being is getting a reward after working hard. Keeping this in mind, you can offer yourself a reward for completing the project. The reward you offer must hold value to you. For example, you can watch your favourite movies after completing the essay, or you can have your favourite ice-cream.

kimadward · 63 weeks ago

Buy Pain Reliever Online Without Medical Card ADHD Meds Without Prescription USA\ UK Anti Anxiety Medications For Sale USA Weight Loss Drugs For Sale Without Prescription Psychedelic For Sale Discreet Delivery Where To Buy Research Chemicals Online

medicalhouse25 · 55 weeks and 3 days ago

MAHJONGSLOT Sebagai Situs Slot Gacor Gampang Menang Dengan RTP Winrate Tertinggi 2023 Dengan panduan rtp yang asli dari pusat tentu membuat permainan semakin gacor dan memenangkan sensational maxwin dengan mudah.

missmawar222 · 45 weeks and 2 days ago

pugpuppies95 · 39 weeks and 2 days ago

donperi1 · 32 weeks and 3 days ago

Untuk memulai bermain di TOTOLOKA88, kalian hanya perlu mendaftar dan membuat akun secara gratis. Proses pendaftaran sangat mudah dan cepat, sehingga kalian tidak perlu repot-repot menunggu lama untuk bisa bermain. Setelah memiliki akun, kalian bisa melakukan deposit dengan mudah melalui berbagai metode pembayaran yang disediakan.

KarinTaufik12 · 16 weeks and 1 day ago

rina · 16 weeks and 1 day ago

oladewi · 16 weeks and 1 day ago

The object of the game is to win money from the machine. https://www.bsc.news/post/top-10-web-slot-online

sadsadsd · 2 weeks ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

You must be signed in to comment.

What's this?

commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.

Share Your Commands

Similar Commands

extract XML RSS etc by tags such as or <code> or <description></a></strong> </p> <p style="overflow:hidden;white-space:nowrap;text-overflow:ellipsis"> <strong><a href="/commands/view/4382/display-embeded-comments-for-every-opt-usefull-for-auto-documenting-your-script">display embeded comments for every --opt, usefull for auto documenting your script</a></strong> </p> <p style="overflow:hidden;white-space:nowrap;text-overflow:ellipsis"> <strong><a href="/commands/view/5087/multi-line-grep">Multi-line grep</a></strong> </p> <p style="overflow:hidden;white-space:nowrap;text-overflow:ellipsis"> <strong><a href="/commands/view/25738/display-disk-partition-sizes">Display disk partition sizes</a></strong> </p> </div> <hr> <div class="box-copy"> <h3 class="righthead">Stay in the loop…</h3> <div class="toggleable"> <dl> <dt>Follow the Tweets.</dt> <dd> <a href="http://twitter.com/commandlinefu"><img class="link-img" src="/images/twitter.jpg" /></a> <p>Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a>. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.</p> <p> » <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="http://twitter.com/commandlinefu">http://twitter.com/commandlinefu</a><br/> » <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3">http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3</a><br/> » <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10">http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10</a> </p> </dd> <dt>Subscribe to the feeds.</dt> <dd> <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Command-line-fu"><img class="link-img" src="/images/rss.gif" /></a> <p>Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):</p> <p>Subscribe to the feed for:</p> <ul id="feed-links"> <li>» <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Command-line-fu">all commands</a></li> <li>» <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="/feed/threeup">commands with 3 up-votes</a> (commandlinefu3)</li> <li>» <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="/feed/tenup">commands with 10 up-votes</a> (commandlinefu10)</li> </ul> </dd> </dl> </div> </div>  </div> </div> </div> <footer class="bs-footer" role="contentinfo" style="background-color:#F5F5F5;"> <div class="container"> <p style="padding-top:20px;">commandlinefu.com © 2018 <a href="https://www.danstools.com" target="_blank">Dan's Tools</a> | <a href="/site/faq">FAQs</a> | <a href="/site/api">API</a> | <a href="/site/widget">Widget</a> | <a href="/site/privacy">Privacy</a></p> </div> </footer>  <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script> <script> $.noConflict(); if (typeof Prototype !== "undefined" && Prototype.BrowserFeatures.ElementExtensions) { var disablePrototypeJS = function (method, pluginsToDisable) { var handler = function (event) { event.target[method] = undefined; setTimeout(function () { delete event.target[method]; }, 0); }; pluginsToDisable.each(function (plugin) { jQuery(window).on(method + '.bs.' + plugin, handler); }); }, pluginsToDisable = ['collapse', 'dropdown', 'modal', 'tooltip', 'popover', 'tab','collect']; disablePrototypeJS('show', pluginsToDisable); disablePrototypeJS('hide', pluginsToDisable); } </script> <script> jQuery( document ).ready(function() { hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad(); hljs.configure({useBR: true}); jQuery('span.code').each(function(i, block) { hljs.highlightBlock(block); }); if (1==0 && window.canRunAds === true) { jQuery('#blocker').hide(); } else { jQuery('#blocker').show(); } }); </script> <script src="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.2/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script> <script src="/js/ads.js"></script> </body> </html>