Tim: >> I used to know of something that did that (something with various >> different reformatting options for massaging text files), but I can't >> think what it was. Quickly looking at the man file for the cat program, >> you could do something like: >> >> cat --squeeze-blank inputfilename -> outputfilename Paul Smith: > Thanks, Tim and Paul. Paul's method does not mysteriously work: > > $ more file1.txt > word1 > > > > word2 > > word3 > $ more -s file1.txt > file2.txt > $ more file2.txt > word1 > > > > word2 > > word3 Hmm, seems to work for me. Both with the "less" and "more" programs, as well as the "cat" program. > Tim's way works partially, i.e., many blank lines are in effect > erased, but some remain. I suspect that the left blank lines are not > blank lines although they look like blank lines. Can one go further > with deleting the left "false" blank lines? In what way do they remain? Can you provide an actual example? (Rather than an explanation of what's happening.) What I see is that all consecutive blank lines are replaced by a single blank line, on the file I tried it with. e.g. Tested on /etc/selinux/targeted/contexts/files/file_contexts If you want to remove all blank lines, then perhaps you could use grep. -- Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
