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Can't remove blank lines from a file

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# 1  
Old 02-18-2010
Can't remove blank lines from a file
Hi Guys,

I have been trying to remove blank lines from a file with no success. I tried using all the following options on the file:

Code:
tr -s '\n' < abc.txt

grep -v "^$" abc.txt

sed '/^$/d' abc.txt

sed '/./!d' abc.txt

awk '/./' abc.txt

The file is a text file.

The output file is unchanged. I am running cygwin with bash shell.

Thanks.
# 2  
Old 02-18-2010
You realize of course that none of the commands you've given actually edits the given file. Just checking the obvious here. Smilie

Since this is cygwin another culprit may be the CPM-style carriage returns Windows text files have. Annoyingly, plenty of things can't actually match a carriage return.

Code:
tr -d '\r' < input | grep -v "^$" > output

# 3  
Old 02-18-2010
you sure those are blank line and not the spaces and/or tabs?

try:
Code:
sed 's/^[ \t]*$//g' file

# 4  
Old 02-18-2010
That will convert spaces into blank lines but not actually delete the blank lines.
# 5  
Old 02-18-2010
Have you tried this one (delete any line starting with a newline):


Code:
sed -e "/^$/d" abc.txt

# 6  
Old 02-18-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by Corona688
That will convert spaces into blank lines but not actually delete the blank lines.
yes..that's correct. what I wanted to tell is the same as your. (try deleting blank lines then after).
I agree it was an incomplete solution.
# 7  
Old 02-19-2010
try awk

Code:
awk 'NF' abc.txt
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