Re: Delete only the nth block of text, multi-line

That's very clever, the way you "increment the block counter" by adding dots to the hold pattern. Below is a variation on your solution, storing a number with expr, instead of a using series of dots. It's no better, just a little different, and helps me understand your solution.
 

 Daniel
 

 --------------------------------------------
 

 $ cat in
foo
[
  aaa 1
  bbb 1
  ccc 1
]
[
  ccc 2
  bbb 2
  aaa 2
]
[
  bbb 3
  ccc 3
  aaa 3
]
[
  bbb 4
  aaa 4
  ccc 4
]
bar
 

 ---------------------------------------
 

 $ cat sed3.txt
## Objective: To delete the 3rd-block from input.
## Where a block begins with [ on a line by itself
## and the block ends with a ] on a separate line.
 

 # skip the non-block lines right away.
/^\[$/,/^\]$/!b end
 

 # increment the block counter
x; s/.*/expr & + 1/e; x
 

 # accumulate the block
:loop $b end; N; /\n\]$/ ! b loop
 

 # we now have the whole block in the pattern space.
# check whether this is the 3rd block?
x
# yes: print remainder after the block
/^3$/ { :remaining n; p; b remaining }
# no: just display block as is
x
 

 :end p

 -----------------------------------------------------
 

 $ sed -n -f sed3.txt in
foo
[
  aaa 1
  bbb 1
  ccc 1
]
[
  ccc 2
  bbb 2
  aaa 2
]
[
  bbb 4
  aaa 4
  ccc 4
]
bar

 



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