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sed show lines text between 2 blank lines

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# 1  
Old 12-02-2011
sed show lines text between 2 blank lines
I have a file like
Code:
blah
blah blah blah

this is the text I need,
which might be between 1-4 lines, but
always has a blank line above and below
it, and is at the end of the text file

the code tags don't show the trailing blank line. I started by deleting the last blank line with:
Code:
sed -i '$d' textfile

but how to I get sed to give me the next 1-4 lines above that output to somenewfile.txt, but stop at the next blank line above it?
Last edited by Scott; 12-03-2011 at 07:43 AM.. Reason: BBCode trickery to show trailing blank line
# 2  
Old 12-02-2011
If the posted last line is the eof then try
Code:
sed '/^$/,/^$/!d' inputfile > outfile.txt

This User Gave Thanks to michaelrozar17 For This Post:
unclecameron
# 3  
Old 12-03-2011
hey, thanks, that worked Smilie

So now, I guess ^$ represents a blank line, but how does the command determine what part of the file to start looking, i.e. I'm just trying to understand what sed is doing a bit better.
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