Re: print N times

That's very clever. Here is my best understanding how Rakesh's solution 
works, please correct me if I didn't get it right.

$ N=4
$ echo abcd | sed -n ":k G; P; s/\n/&/$N; Tk"
abcd
abcd
abcd
abcd

- Each time through loop, P prints abcd (line #1 of PatSpace).
- For counter, G appends \n to PatSpace each time through loop.
- Seems like the order of G and P does not matter.
- Normally, s does not substitute, so T loops.
- When P has run 4 times, PatSpace has \n\n\n\n, s substitutes \n #4, T 
does not loop, sed exits.

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

I made a simpler version of Davide's solution, I think it still works, 
he already explained how the solution works.

$ N=4
$ echo abcd | sed -e ":k x; /z\{$N\}/ d" -e 's/$/z/; x; p; bk'
abcd
abcd
abcd
abcd

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

Daniel

>
>
>   We can simplify the sed code a bit , since the pattern space
>   gets loaded by input.
>   Note: The $N even though it looks like a valid sed syntax, but
>   here it is a shell variable N, storing the number of times
>   to print the string "abcd". N > 0
>
>
>   sed -ne "
>
>      :loop
>         G;P
>         s/\n/&/$N
>      Tloop
>   "
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Posted by: [email protected]
> ------------------------------------
>