I'm trying to delete lines from a large text file using VI.
Every line that I am wanting to delete start with 'S' - all others do not. (A list of users)

I've tried using * but doesn't seem to like it...any ideas...

Doesn't have to be VI - but I'm better with VI than sed/awk.

Ah...ooops...there are some that do start with S....

But all those that start with S[0-9] should be removed - those that start S[A-Z] should remain.

Also another way might be looking for any rows with [0-9] appearing in them anywhere - as these too will satisfy the criteria.

.....

I couldn't find any simple way of a mass deletion in vi using a regexp, but I am sure that somebody out there has that knowledge...

How about using :

The file, newfile will be devoid of entries that start with S[0-9].

I use `grep -v` all the time to remove undesired entries from logfiles and it normally works like a champ.

D'oh!

I saw this message in another thread from J.P.:

You can use :g/^S[0-9].*/d to perform the mass deletion in vi. I thought there was a way to do it but couldn't remember /g, only %s for mass subsitutions!

Well, if you're looking for anything with numbers in the name ([0-9]), why bother looking for line beginning with S AND having a number in it? Why not simply remove any line with a number in it?

:g/.*[0-9].*/d

Similar to the above, it will remove any line with a number embedded in there...

Cool.... the answer I was looking for was how to use the wildcard ....which I can see is used by preceeding with a dot.

The rest is a peice of cake...and yeah - I did it with the numbers only - which became apparent as I worked through it. Thanks all.

Pete,

If you want to delete a specific recurring pattern at the beginning of the line you can use the "^". Or use the $ for patterns at the end of the line.

:g /^S[0-9]/d

This will work for deleting lines that begin that way.