Hi,
how can i print the previous, current and next line using sed?
current line is the matching line.

The following prints all lines containing 'Failure' and also the immediate next line
cat $file | sed -n -e '/Failure/{N;p;}'

Now, i also want to print the previous line too.

Thanks,
-srinivas yelamanchili

sed -n -e '/Failure/{x;1!p;g;$!N;p;D;}' -e h  inputfilename

Thanks Jim, this worked.
-srinivas

Another option would be to use grep

grep -n -C1 Failure filename


-Prathap

If your grep version (GNU) supports the -A and -B option:

grep -A 1 -B 1 'Failure' file

sed -n '/pattern/ !{
h
}
/pattern/ {
N
H
x
p
}' filename

Thanks to all for the solution.
-A, B, C options are not supported.
Using HP-UX 11.11

Now, can i print just the previous line and the matching line?
cat replace_all* | sed -n -e 'N;/Failure/p;'
prints the previous line only for the first match, thereafter only matching lines are printed and not their previous lines.

Thanks,
-srinivas