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 © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/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'