Rodney Baker wrote:

See? I always 'sed' it was a powerful tool, if only one knew how to use it...;-)

Seriously, thanks Dave for another Really Useful Post. This one definitely gets filed away in my toolbox. :-)

Glad you find it useful. Now all I have to do is wait on the Linux God for my next epiphany.... Like you sed once I figure out sed, they say it is quite useful ;-) -- David C. Rankin, J.D., P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Mukul Singh wrote:

David C. Rankin wrote:

...

Rodney Baker wrote:

...

See? I always 'sed' it was a powerful tool, if only one knew how to use it...;-)

Seriously, thanks Dave for another Really Useful Post. This one definitely gets filed away in my toolbox. :-)

Glad you find it useful. Now all I have to do is wait on the Linux God for my next epiphany.... Like you sed once I figure out sed, they say it is quite useful ;-)

Or you can do :

cat <filename> | egrep -v "^[[:space:]]*$|^#"

I like it, but from what I can tell it doesn't handle the '^:space:#' or '^:space:;' or '^;' situations. I used to rely on egrep alot until working to eliminate '|' pipes in my expressions. Then, it becomes apparent that the flexibility in sed with the ability to author multiple expressions for the same input without piping wins hands down. Using your expression, I would have first eliminated the pipe and cat all together rewriting as: egrep -v "^[[:space:]]*$|^#" <filename> No need for two commands with a pipe in the middle where one will do. However, you did help me catch a typo in what I had posted. The expression should have been: sed -e '/^\s*$/d' -e '/^\s*[#;]/d' cat testfile # comment no space ; php/samba comment no space (2 blank lines follow) # comment with space ; php/samba comment with space (2 blank line follow with leading spaces) # comment with tab ; php/samba comment with tab (blank line follows with leading tabs) my config parameter = hello parameter2 = again ;# End of Test File Testing egrep: 02:31 alchemy~/tmp> egrep -v "^[[:space:]]*$|^#" testfile ; php/samba comment no space (2 blank lines follow) # comment with space ; php/samba comment with space (2 blank line follow with leading spaces) # comment with tab ; php/samba comment with tab (blank line follows with leading tabs) my config parameter = hello parameter2 = again ;# End of Test File Hmm.. Testing sed: 02:34 alchemy~/tmp> sed -e '/^\s*$/d' -e '/^\s*[#;]/d'

Or you can do :

cat <filename> | egrep -v "^[[:space:]]*$|^#"

Doh, useless use of cat award. -- Brian K. White brian@aljex.com http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org