removing specific lines in a file

alexandra84 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-25-04, 13:59

Another stupid question...
I have a file, I need to remove all the lines in the file that start with a specific character (in this case, #). Is there any easy unix command to do this or should I write a mini program to do it for me?

Thanks!

vgersh99 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-25-04, 14:16

The only stupid question is the one not asked [(c) don't remember]

Code:

ex - myFile.txt <<EOF
%s/^#.*/replacedPattern/g
wq!
EOF

alexandra84 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-25-04, 14:28

Thanks! That definitely helped

SiverSloth · #4 (**permalink**) 08-26-04, 06:39

Another tool you might try is egrep. To remove lines which start with a #

Code:

egrep -v ^# infile > outfile

The ^ symbol anchors the # to the start of the line so you don't remove a line such as

data # more data

The -v flag means lines other than those which match the pattern.

man egrep for more info

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