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NL(1) User Commands NL(1)

NAME

nl - number lines of files

SYNOPSIS

nl [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

Write each FILE to standard output, with line numbers added.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-b, --body-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering body lines
-d, --section-delimiter=CC
use CC for logical page delimiters
-f, --footer-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering footer lines
-h, --header-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering header lines
-i, --line-increment=NUMBER
line number increment at each line
-l, --join-blank-lines=NUMBER
group of NUMBER empty lines counted as one
-n, --number-format=FORMAT
insert line numbers according to FORMAT
-p, --no-renumber
do not reset line numbers for each section
-s, --number-separator=STRING
add STRING after (possible) line number
-v, --starting-line-number=NUMBER
first line number for each section
-w, --number-width=NUMBER
use NUMBER columns for line numbers
--help
display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit

By default, selects -v1 -i1 -l1 -sTAB -w6 -nrn -hn -bt -fn. CC are two delimiter characters used to construct logical page delimiters, a missing second character implies :. Type \\ for \. STYLE is one of:

a
number all lines
t
number only nonempty lines
n
number no lines
pBRE
number only lines that contain a match for the basic regular expression, BRE

FORMAT is one of:

ln
left justified, no leading zeros
rn
right justified, no leading zeros
rz
right justified, leading zeros

AUTHOR

Written by Scott Bartram and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report nl translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) nl invocation'
February 2017 GNU coreutils 8.26