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PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux  manual  page  for  details  of
       Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       nl — line numbering filter

SYNOPSIS

       nl [−p] [−b type] [−d delim] [−f type] [−h type] [−i incr] [−l num]
           [−n format] [−s sep] [−v startnum] [−w width] [file]

DESCRIPTION

       The  nl  utility  shall read lines from the named file or the standard input if no file is
       named and shall reproduce the lines to standard output. Lines shall  be  numbered  on  the
       left.  Additional  functionality may be provided in accordance with the command options in
       effect.

       The nl utility views the text it reads in terms of logical pages. Line numbering shall  be
       reset  at the start of each logical page. A logical page consists of a header, a body, and
       a footer  section.  Empty  sections  are  valid.  Different  line  numbering  options  are
       independently  available for header, body, and footer (for example, no numbering of header
       and footer lines while numbering blank lines only in the body).

       The starts of logical page sections shall be signaled by input  lines  containing  nothing
       but the following delimiter characters:

                                       ┌───────────┬────────────┐
                                       │   LineStart of  │
                                       ├───────────┼────────────┤
                                       │\:\:\:     │ Header     │
                                       │\:\:       │ Body       │
                                       │\:         │ Footer     │
                                       └───────────┴────────────┘
       Unless  otherwise  specified,  nl  shall assume the text being read is in a single logical
       page body.

OPTIONS

       The nl utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2,
       Utility Syntax Guidelines.  Only one file can be named.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −b type   Specify  which  logical  page body lines shall be numbered. Recognized types and
                 their meaning are:

                 a       Number all lines.

                 t       Number only non-empty lines.

                 n       No line numbering.

                 pstring Number only lines that contain the basic regular expression specified in
                         string.

                 The default type for logical page body shall be t (text lines numbered).

       −d delim  Specify  the  delimiter  characters  that  indicate  the start of a logical page
                 section. These can be changed from the default  characters  "\:"  to  two  user-
                 specified  characters.  If  only  one character is entered, the second character
                 shall remain the default character ':'.

       −f type   Specify the same as b type except for  footer.  The  default  for  logical  page
                 footer shall be n (no lines numbered).

       −h type   Specify  the same as b type except for header. The default type for logical page
                 header shall be n (no lines numbered).

       −i incr   Specify the increment value used to number logical page lines. The default shall
                 be 1.

       −l num    Specify  the  number  of  blank lines to be considered as one. For example, −l 2
                 results  in  only  the  second  adjacent  blank  line  being  numbered  (if  the
                 appropriate −h a, −b a, or −f a option is set). The default shall be 1.

       −n format Specify  the  line  numbering format. Recognized values are: ln, left justified,
                 leading zeros suppressed; rn, right justified,  leading  zeros  suppressed;  rz,
                 right  justified,  leading  zeros  kept.  The  default format shall be rn (right
                 justified).

       −p        Specify that numbering should not be restarted at logical page delimiters.

       −s sep    Specify the characters used in separating the line number and the  corresponding
                 text line. The default sep shall be a <tab>.

       −v startnum
                 Specify  the  initial value used to number logical page lines. The default shall
                 be 1.

       −w width  Specify the number of characters to be used for the  line  number.  The  default
                 width shall be 6.

OPERANDS

       The following operand shall be supported:

       file      A pathname of a text file to be line-numbered.

STDIN

       The standard input shall be used if no file operand is specified, and shall be used if the
       file operand is '−' and the implementation treats  the  '−'  as  meaning  standard  input.
       Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used.  See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES

       The input file shall be a text file.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of nl:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
                 null.  (See  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of   POSIX.1‐2008,   Section   8.2,
                 Internationalization   Variables  for  the  precedence  of  internationalization
                 variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string  value,  override  the  values  of  all  the  other
                 internationalization variables.

       LC_COLLATE
                 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
                 character collating elements within regular expressions.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of  text  data
                 as  characters  (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in
                 arguments and input files), the behavior of  character  classes  within  regular
                 expressions, and for deciding which characters are in character class graph (for
                 the −b t, −f t, and −h t options).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format  and  contents  of
                 diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       The standard output shall be a text file in the following format:

           "%s%s%s", <line number>, <separator>, <input line>

       where <line number> is one of the following numeric formats:

       %6d       When the rn format is used (the default; see −n).

       %06d      When the rz format is used.

       %−6d      When the ln format is used.

       <empty>   When  line  numbers are suppressed for a portion of the page; the <separator> is
                 also suppressed.

       In the preceding list, the number 6 is the default width; the −w option  can  change  this
       value.

STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       In  using the −d delim option, care should be taken to escape characters that have special
       meaning to the command interpreter.

EXAMPLES

       The command:

           nl −v 10 −i 10 −d \!+ file1

       numbers file1 starting at line number 10  with  an  increment  of  10.  The  logical  page
       delimiter  is  "!+".   Note  that  the  '!'  has to be escaped when using csh as a command
       interpreter because of its history substitution syntax.  For ksh and sh the escape is  not
       necessary, but does not do any harm.

RATIONALE

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       pr

       The  Base  Definitions  volume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section
       12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and  reproduced  in  electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std
       1003.1,  2013  Edition,  Standard  for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
       Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013  by  the
       Institute  of  Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc and The Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event  of  any
       discrepancy  between  this  version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the
       original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The  original  Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any  typographical  or  formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
       been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page  format.  To  report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .