Shell script: Remove blank lines

gholdbhurg · #1 (**permalink**) 02-25-2009

Hi gurus,

I have this file with blank lines in it.
How do i remove them in shell?
I tried these commands but not working:
sed '/^ *$/d'
or
sed '/^$/d'
Anybody has a better idea pls?

Also there are lines which starts with a single space, how do we remove the space in those lines?
Thanks.

vbe · #2 (**permalink**) 02-25-2009

sed '/^$/d'
Should have worked, maybe line not so blank after all...

ShawnMilo · #3 (**permalink**) 02-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by vbe

sed '/^$/d'
Should have worked, maybe line not so blank after all...

To see exactly what's in the file, try this:

Code:

od -c file_name

Maybe there are non-printable characters.

quirkasaurus · #4 (**permalink**) 02-25-2009

or. . . . .

Code:

grep "[!-~]" file1 > file2

only grabs lines with SOMETHING ASCII in there other than just a space.

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