coreutils (9.4)

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nl.1
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 logical page delimiters

-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 for each section

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

-v, --starting-line-number=NUMBER
first line number for each section

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

--help display this help and exit

--version
output version information and exit

Default options are: -bt -d'\:' -fn -hn -i1 -l1 -n'rn' -s<TAB> -v1 -w6

CC are two delimiter characters used to construct logical page delimiters; a missing second character implies
':'. As a GNU extension one can specify more than two characters, and also specifying the empty string (-d '')
disables section matching.

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
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/li‐
censes/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
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) nl invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.4 August 2023 NL(1)