nl
(1)number lines of files
Options
13-b--body-numberingSTYLEuse STYLE for numbering body lines
-d--section-delimiterCCuse CC for logical page delimiters
-f--footer-numberingSTYLEuse STYLE for numbering footer lines
-h--header-numberingSTYLEuse STYLE for numbering header lines
-i--line-incrementNUMBERline number increment at each line
-l--join-blank-linesNUMBERgroup of NUMBER empty lines counted as one
-n--number-formatFORMATinsert line numbers according to FORMAT
-p--no-renumberdo not reset line numbers for each section
-s--number-separatorSTRINGadd STRING after (possible) line number
-v--starting-line-numberNUMBERfirst line number for each section
-w--number-widthNUMBERuse NUMBER columns for line numbers
--helpdisplay this help and exit
--versionoutput version information and exit
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:
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/
Report any translation bugs to
https://translationproject.org/team/
SEE ALSO
Full documentation
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) nl invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright © 2025 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.