Dear All, I have a file which contains the following records. 3.09 4.21 -20.96 150 130 4.39 5.47 -20.96 150 130 5.62 6.79 -21.00 170 150 6.94 9.00 -21.04 150 130 > 3.09 4.21 -20.96 150 130 4.39 5.47 -20.96 150 130 5.62 6.79 -21.00 170 150 6.94 9.00 -21.04 150 130 I want to read this file and as soon as I reach the sign ">" I want to the awk script to trigger a new file name and grouped all the records as soon as it reaches the ">". The result I want in this case should look like: file1 3.09 4.21 -20.96 150 130 4.39 5.47 -20.96 150 130 5.62 6.79 -21.00 170 150 6.94 9.00 -21.04 150 130 and file2 3.09 4.21 -20.96 150 130 4.39 5.47 -20.96 150 130 5.62 6.79 -21.00 170 150 6.94 9.00 -21.04 150 130 How one can do this using awk ? Thank you Yacob Sen

IMO, awk is not the best tool for this problem, but here is a way: #!/bin/bash awk ' BEGIN { x=0 } { if(/>/) { x=1 continue } if ( x == 0) print $0 > "file1" if ( x == 1) print $0 > "file2" } ' datafile