Hi.

Use od -c  for check contents of file.

For example: some spaces or tabs will look like empty line, but not for sed.

Also check how line ended (char 10 or 10 ;13) . May be it's DOS file .

Regards,

   Nik

sed does not change a file's contents unless you specify the "-i" flag.

Andris

happy10319 wrote:

 

Thanks.

od -c annuaire.txt

0000000 J o h n S m i t h 6 6 8

0000020 8 8 : j o h n @ s m i t h . e x

0000040 a m p l e . f r \n \n T i m n K

0000060 i t h : 7 6 3 2 1 : t i m n @

0000100 k i t h . e x a m p l e . c o m

0000120 \n P A U L K I K H T Y : 5 4

0000140 4 3 2 : p a u l @ k i t y . c o

0000160 m \n J o h n S m i t h 6

0000200 6 8 8 8 : j o h n @ s m i t h .

0000220 e x a m p l e . f r \n T i m n

0000240 K i t h : 7 6 3 2 1 : t i m n

0000260 @ k i t h . e x a m p l e . c o

0000300 m \n P A U L K I K H T Y : 5

0000320 4 4 3 2 : p a u l @ k i t y . c

0000340 o m \n

0000343

 

Ok. What do you see here and what is the solution?

it is a vi file.

Regards.

There's no such thing as "a vi file".  vi is just a text editor.  The *nix version of notepad.  Would you refer to a file on Windows as "a notepad file"? 

What you show above does not really give what we need to see.  Open your file in vi, then put vi into 'hex mode'.  I leave it as an exercise for the student to research how to put vi into hex mode.

A command to check line endings (and other gremlins) and that is also easy to remember is

      cat -vet  filename

For example:

[dude@localhost ~]$ cat -vet testfile

some stuff$

another line$

$

after an empty line$

  $

after an empty line with spaces.$

^I$

after an empty line with a tab.$

In the above example you can see ^I as tab and $ as newline.

To remove all "empty" lines using sed and inline editing:

[dude@localhost ~]$ sed -i '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' testfile

 

[dude@localhost ~]$ cat -vet testfile

some stuff$

another line$

after an empty line$

after an empty line with spaces.$

after an empty line with a tab.$

EdStevens wrote:

...

vi is just a text editor.  The *nix version of notepad.

...

I strongly disagree with "The *nix version of notepad.".

Gaz in Oz wrote:

 

EdStevens wrote:

...

vi is just a text editor. The *nix version of notepad.

...

I strongly disagree with "The *nix version of notepad.".

Why would you disagree? 

It's true that vi is far more powerful than notepad, but they are both 'just' text editors.