Hi,

I have file 1.txt with following entries as shown:

0152364|134444|10.20.30.40|015236433
0233654|122555|10.20.30.50|023365433
**
**
**

In file 2.txt I have the following entries as shown:

0152364|134444|10.20.30.40|015236433
0233654|122555|10.20.30.50|023365433
0789456|332211|10.20.30.40|078945633
1234567|225522|10.20.30.50|123456733
0321654|999999|10.20.30.40|032165433
0456123|777899|10.20.30.40|045612333
***
***
***

I want take the IP Address column from 1.txt and then search it in 2.txt and comment the duplicate entry from second matched pattern.

i.e., i need to have the following output in 2.txt as shown:

0152364|134444|10.20.30.40|015236433
0233654|122555|10.20.30.50|023365433
#0789456|332211|10.20.30.40|078945633
#1234567|225522|10.20.30.50|123456733
#0321654|999999|10.20.30.40|032165433
#0456123|777899|10.20.30.40|045612333
***
***
***

Below is the script i wrote but it will comment all the duplicate entries:

for i in `cat 1.txt |cut -d"|" -f3`
do
cat 2.txt |sed "s/^\(.*\|$i\|.*)/#/g" > tmp.txt
mv tmp.txt 2.txt
done

Can some one guide me how to leave the first duplicate entry untouched and comment/delete from second duplicate entry and so on.

Please do not close this thread if you do not know the answer.

Thanks
-Imas