Need to print certain lines from a file - Shell Programming and Scripting

Annihilannic · #6 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008

Here it is again with comments

Code:

awk '
    # for every line containing just a ";"
    /^;$/ {
        # read subsequent lines until we reach another one containing
        # just a ";"
        while (getline && $0 !~ /^;$/) {
            # print them
            print
        }
        # exit from the script (i.e. do not process any more lines)
        exit
    }
' inputfile > outputfile

To satisfy your new requirement you only need to modify the script slightly to search for different strings instead of ";".