Getting a text file rid of all superfluous blank lines

[Paul Smith]

On 11/30/05, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> > Taking a text file, how can one eliminate at once all superfluous
> > blank lines?
>
> I used to know of something that did that (something with various
> different reformatting options for massaging text files), but I can't
> think what it was.  Quickly looking at the man file for the cat program,
> you could do something like:
>
> cat --squeeze-blank inputfilename -> outputfilename

Thanks, Tim and Paul. Paul's method does not mysteriously work:

$ more file1.txt
word1



word2

word3
$ more -s file1.txt > file2.txt
$ more file2.txt
word1



word2

word3
$

Tim's way works partially, i.e., many blank lines are in effect
erased, but some remain. I suspect that the left blank lines are not
blank lines although they look like blank lines. Can one go further
with deleting the left "false" blank lines?

Paul