Say I have a file which is of following format Group: Asd Bsd Csd Owner: Date: Group: Aed Asd Csd Owner: Date: I want Group: Asd,Bsd,Csd Owner: Date: Group: Aed,Asd,Csd Owner: Date: How can I do this in Unix. Any suggestion ???? Regards Arun

You can set up a really ugly break point report in a shell script. When the line equals Group: read each line appending to a variable until the word owner appears. Print the variable and continue the loop: #!/bin/bash pr_line="" g_flag=0 fr=1 while read line do if [[ ${line} = "Group:" ]] then g_flag=1 pr_line=${line} continue fi # print when line equals Owner: if [[ ${line} = "Owner:" ]] then printf "%s\n" ${pr_line} g_flag=0 fr=1 fi if [[ g_flag -eq 1 ]] then if [[ fr -eq 1 ]] then pr_line=${pr_line}${line} fr=0 else pr_line=${pr_line},${line} fi continue fi printf "%s\n" ${line} done < data.file

Thanks for update. But the script does not give output in required format.. Pls Help.. Regards Arun

Below, is the output of the bash script. It looks exactly like what you asked for. If isn't, you need to provide more information about the problem: Group:Asd,Bsd,Csd Owner: Date: Group:Aed,Asd,Csd Owner: Date:

Hi Actually My data file is eactly this : Data file f2.dat : Data for GROUP 'bin' Userlist: bin daemon root scpar test Owner: nobody (USER ) Create time: 13-Feb-2007 10:35 Update time: 13-Feb-2007 10:45 Updated by: root Data for GROUP 'console' Owner: nobody (USER ) Create time: 13-Feb-2007 10:35 Update time: 13-Feb-2007 10:35 Updated by: root Data for GROUP 'daemon' Userlist: bin daemon root Owner: nobody (USER ) Create time: 13-Feb-2007 10:35 Update time: 13-Feb-2007 10:45 Updated by: root So i want the Userlist as Userlist:bin,daemon,root,scpar,test For 2 nd Group (console) no Userlist so dont do anything Userlist:bin,daemon,root. Pls advice...... Regards Arun

Hi I also need all the other data. But i want to Manipulate only UserList so that Userlist is such that UserList: bin,daemon,root instead of UserList: bin daemon root . All other fields i need no changes.... Regards Arun

You can't expect a break point report to work when you change the data break rules: #!/bin/bash pr_line="" g_flag=0 fr=1 while read line do # save when beginning line equals Userlist: case "${line}" in Userlist:*) g_flag=1 pr_line="${line}" continue ;; # print when beginning line equals Owner: Owner:*) if [[ -n ${pr_line} ]] then printf "%s\n" "${pr_line}" fi pr_line="" g_flag=0 fr=1 ;; esac if [[ g_flag -eq 1 ]] then if [[ fr -eq 1 ]] then pr_line=${pr_line}${line} fr=0 else pr_line=${pr_line},${line} fi continue fi printf "%s\n" "${line}" done < f2.dat