Getting a text file rid of all superfluous blank lines

[Paul Howarth]

Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Nov 2005, Paul Howarth wrote:
> 
>> Paul Smith wrote:
>>
>>> On 11/30/05, Paul Howarth <paul at city-fan.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Taking a text file, how can one eliminate at once all superfluous 
>>>>> blank lines?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What is your definition of a "superfluous blank line"? Is that all 
>>>> blank
>>>> lines, or all consecutive blank lines where the number is more than 
>>>> one?
>>>>
>>>> If it's the latter, you may find "more -s filename" to your liking.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, Paul. I mean "all consecutive blank lines where the number is
>>> more than one". Furthermore, I mean how to delete those blank lines
>>> from the file.
>>
>>
>> $ more -s file > file.new
>> $ mv file.new file
>>
>> Paul
> 
> 
> Or better, "cat -s file > file.new" and avoid having to page through the 
> file.

You only have to page through a file when output is a terminal (not in 
this case) IIRC.

Paul.