man/cat1p/nl.1p.txt
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nl(P) nl(P)
NAME nl - line numbering filter SYNOPSIS nl [-p][-b type][-d delim][-f type][-h type][-i incr][-l num][-n format] [-s sep][-v startnum][-w width][file] DESCRIPTION The nl utility shall read lines from the named file or the standard input if no file is named and shall repro- duce the lines to standard output. Lines shall be num- bered on the left. Additional functionality may be pro- vided in accordance with the command options in effect. The nl utility views the text it reads in terms of logi- cal pages. Line numbering shall be 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 indepen- dently available for header, body, and footer (for exam- ple, no numbering of header and footer lines while num- bering blank lines only in the body). The starts of logical page sections shall be signaled by input lines containing nothing but the following delim- iter characters: Line Start of \:\:\: Header \:\: Body \: Footer Unless otherwise specified, nl shall assume the text being read is in a single logical page body. OPTIONS The nl utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. Only one file can be named. The following options shall be supported: -b type Specify which logical page body lines shall be numbered. Recognized types and their meaning are: a Number all lines. t Number only non-empty lines. n No line numbering. pstring Number only lines that contain the basic regular expression specified in string. The default type for logical page body shall be t (text lines numbered). -d delim Specify the delimiter characters that indicate the start of a logical page section. These can be changed from the default characters "\:" to two user-specified characters. If only one character is entered, the second character shall remain the default character ':' . -f type Specify the same as b type except for footer. The default for logical page footer shall be n (no lines numbered). -h type Specify the same as b type except for header. The default type for logical page header shall be n (no lines numbered). -i incr Specify the increment value used to number logi- cal page lines. The default shall be 1. -l num Specify the number of blank lines to be consid- ered as one. For example, -l 2 results in only the second adjacent blank line being numbered (if the appropriate -h a, -b a, or -f a option is set). The default shall be 1. -n format Specify the line numbering format. Recognized values are: ln, left justified, leading zeros suppressed; rn, right justified, leading zeros suppressed; rz, right justified, leading zeros kept. The default format shall be rn (right jus- tified). -p Specify that numbering should not be restarted at logical page delimiters. -s sep Specify the characters used in separating the line number and the corresponding text line. The default sep shall be a <tab>. -v startnum Specify the initial value used to number logical page lines. The default shall be 1. -w width Specify the number of characters to be used for the line number. The default width shall be 6. OPERANDS The following operand shall be supported: file A pathname of a text file to be line-numbered. STDIN The standard input is a text file that is used if no file operand is given. INPUT FILES The input file named by the file operand is a text file. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables shall affect the execution of nl: LANG Provide a default value for the internationaliza- tion variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale cate- gories.) LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. LC_COLLATE Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character collat- ing elements within regular expressions. LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi- byte characters in arguments and input files), the behavior of character classes within regular expressions, and for deciding which characters are in character class graph (for the -b t, -f t, and -h t options). LC_MESSAGES Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes- sages written to standard error. NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES . ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS Default. STDOUT The standard output shall be a text file in the follow- ing format: "%s%s%s", <line number>, <separator>, <input line> where <line number> is one of the following numeric for- mats: %6d When the rn format is used (the default; see -n). %06d When the rz format is used. %-6d When the ln format is used. <empty> When line numbers are suppressed for a portion of the page; the <separator> is also suppressed. In the preceding list, the number 6 is the default width; the -w option can change this value. STDERR The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. OUTPUT FILES None. EXTENDED DESCRIPTION None. EXIT STATUS The following exit values shall be returned: 0 Successful completion. >0 An error occurred. CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS Default. The following sections are informative. APPLICATION USAGE In using the -d delim option, care should be taken to escape characters that have special meaning to the com- mand interpreter. EXAMPLES The command: nl -v 10 -i 10 -d \!+ file1 numbers file1 starting at line number 10 with an incre- ment of 10. The logical page delimiter is "!+" . Note that the '!' has to be escaped when using csh as a com- mand interpreter because of its history substitution syntax. For ksh and sh the escape is not necessary, but does not do any harm. RATIONALE None. FUTURE DIRECTIONS None. SEE ALSO pr COPYRIGHT Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operat- ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci- fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti- tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.open- group.org/unix/online.html . POSIX 2003 nl(P) |