removing lines between two patterns (not inclusive) with sed

Question

Ok

I know that this is trivial question but: How can i remove lines from files that are between two known patterns/words:

pattern1
garba

Answer 1

awk '/pattern1/{g=1;next}/pattern2/{g=0;next}g' file

Answer 2

This sed code will work as well:

sed '/PATTERN1/,/PATTERN2/d' FILE

Answer 3

sed -n '/pattern1/{p; :a; N; /pattern2/!ba; s/.*\n//}; p' inputfile

Explanation:

/pattern1/{         # if pattern1 is found
    p               # print it
    :a              # loop
        N           # and accumulate lines
    /pattern2/!ba   # until pattern2 is found
    s/.*\n//        # delete the part before pattern2
}
p                   # print the line (it's either pattern2 or it's outside the block)

Edit:

Some versions of sed have to be spoon-fed:

sed -n -e '/pattern1/{' -e 'p' -e ':a' -e 'N' -e '/pattern2/!ba' -e 's/.*\n//' -e '}' -e 'p' inputfile

Answer 4

This might work for you:

sed '/pattern1/,/pattern2/{//!d}' file

Answer 5

This is easily done with awk:

BEGIN { doPrint = 1; }
/pattern1/ { doPrint = 0; print $0; }
/pattern2/ { doPrint = 1; }
{ if (doPrint) print $0; }

I've found the sed info is fairly easy reading, with many examples. Same thing for awk.

Answer 6

You may also use the Unix text editor ed:

echo '
pattern1
garbage
pattern2
' > test.txt

cat <<-'EOF' | sed -e 's/^ *//' -e 's/ *$//' | ed -s test.txt &>/dev/null
  H
  /pattern1/+1,/pattern2/-1d
  wq
EOF

For more information see: Editing files with the ed text editor from scripts