linux man page for nl

NL(1)								   User Commands							     NL(1)

NAME
       nl - number lines of files

SYNOPSIS
       nl [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       Write each FILE to standard output, with line numbers added.  With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -b, --body-numbering=STYLE
	      use STYLE for numbering body lines

       -d, --section-delimiter=CC
	      use CC for separating logical pages

       -f, --footer-numbering=STYLE
	      use STYLE for numbering footer lines

       -h, --header-numbering=STYLE
	      use STYLE for numbering header lines

       -i, --line-increment=NUMBER
	      line number increment at each line

       -l, --join-blank-lines=NUMBER
	      group of NUMBER empty lines counted as one

       -n, --number-format=FORMAT
	      insert line numbers according to FORMAT

       -p, --no-renumber
	      do not reset line numbers at logical pages

       -s, --number-separator=STRING
	      add STRING after (possible) line number

       -v, --starting-line-number=NUMBER
	      first line number on each logical page

       -w, --number-width=NUMBER
	      use NUMBER columns for line numbers

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

       By default, selects -v1 -i1 -l1 -sTAB -w6 -nrn -hn -bt -fn.  CC are two delimiter characters for separating logical pages, a missing second
       character implies :.  Type \ for .  STYLE is one of:

       a      number all lines

       t      number only nonempty lines

       n      number no lines

       pBRE   number only lines that contain a match for the basic regular expression, BRE

       FORMAT is one of:

       ln     left justified, no leading zeros

       rn     right justified, no leading zeros

       rz     right justified, leading zeros

AUTHOR
       Written by Scott Bartram and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report nl bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report nl translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for nl is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and nl programs are properly installed at your site, the com-
       mand

	      info coreutils 'nl invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU coreutils 8.5						   February 2011							     NL(1)