The
nl utility reads lines from the named
file or the standard input if the
file argument is omitted, applies a configurable line numbering filter operation and writes the result to the standard output.
The
nl utility treats the text it reads in terms of logical pages. Unless specified otherwise, 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 sections.
The starts of logical page sections are signaled by input lines containing nothing but one of the following sequences of delimiter characters:
If the input does not contain any logical page section signaling directives, the text being read is assumed to consist of a single logical page body.
The following options are available:
-b type
Specify the logical page body lines to be numbered. Recognized
type arguments are:
t
Number only non-empty lines.
pexpr
Number only those lines that contain the basic regular expression specified by expr.
The default
type for logical page body lines is t.
-d delim
Specify the delimiter characters used to indicate the start of a logical page section in the input file. At most two characters may be specified; if only one character is specified, the first character is replaced and the second character remains unchanged. The default delim characters are ``\:''.
-f type
Specify the same as -b type except for logical page footer lines. The default type for logical page footer lines is n.
-h type
Specify the same as -b type except for logical page header lines. The default type for logical page header lines is n.
-i incr
Specify the increment value used to number logical page lines. The default incr value is 1.
-l num
If numbering of all lines is specified for the current logical section using the corresponding -b a, -f a or -h a option, specify the number of adjacent blank lines to be considered as one. For example, -l 2 results in only the second adjacent blank line being numbered. The default num value is 1.
-n format
Specify the line numbering output format. Recognized
format arguments are:
rn
Right justified, leading zeros suppressed.
rz
Right justified, leading zeros kept.
The default
format is rn.
-p
Specify that line 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 setting is a single tab character.
-v startnum
Specify the initial value used to number logical page lines; see also the description of the -p option. The default startnum value is 1.
-w width
Specify the number of characters to be occupied by the line number; in case the width is insufficient to hold the line number, it will be truncated to its width least significant digits. The default width is 6.