Bash: how would you extract all the lines between two sentences?

Question

I have a file like this:

When, in the course of human events, 
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve 
*** Start copy here ***
the political bonds which have connected them 
with another, and to assume among the powers of 
*** End copy here ***
the earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them

and I want to write a one line terminal command to extract the lines between *** Start copy here *** and *** End copy here *** so the output should be:

the political bonds which have connected them 
with another, and to assume among the powers of

How would I do this? I don't want to use awk (I've been playing around with sed but can't get it right) and the other responses I've found find words rather than sentences, which confuses me a bit.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 04 '18 at 16:01

1

Following awk may help you in same.

awk '/*** End copy here ***/{flag="";next}/*** Start copy here ***/{flag=1;next} flag'  Input_file

answered Jan 04 '18 at 16:01

RavinderSingh13

130,504
14
57
93

Thanks! Would it be possible to do the same using `sed` instead of `awk`? – hello world Jan 04 '18 at 16:02

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 04 '18 at 16:10

1

sed -e '1,/^\*\*\* Start copy here \*\*\*$/d' -e '/^\*\*\* End copy here \*\*\*$/,$d' tmp.txt

answered Jan 04 '18 at 16:10

Jack

5,801
1
15
20

Bash: how would you extract all the lines between two sentences?

2 Answers2