sed in Vista - how to delete all symbols between?

Question

Hello, I have a bat file that I should use to delete a part of one file and save into another one. I need to delete all the symbols between text "[aaa bbb]" and "[ccc ddd]". That is if I have the text:

[aaa bbb]
1
2
3
[ccc ddd]

I should have as output:

[aaa bbb]
[ccc ddd]

Thank you

EDIT: I would like to clarify the question. I should delete all the symbols between marker1 and marker2. Marker1 and marker2 are just some words or parts of text but not obligatory lines. For example I would have:

[aaa bbb] [ccc]
1
2
3
4
5
[www yyy]

If I want to delete the text between [aaa bbb] and [www yyy] I should have as output:

[aaa bbb] 
[www yyy]

Answer 1

I looked at cmd and at power shell - can't find anything useful. Get yourself ActivePerl?

Answer 2

If you trust the VB script "sed-like" of this answer...

sed.vbs:

Dim pat, patparts, rxp, inp
pat = WScript.Arguments(0)
patparts = Split(pat,"/")
Set rxp = new RegExp
rxp.Global = True
rxp.Multiline = False
rxp.Pattern = patparts(1)
Do While Not WScript.StdIn.AtEndOfStream
  inp = WScript.StdIn.ReadLine()
  WScript.Echo rxp.Replace(inp, patparts(2))
Loop

You can type
cscript /Nologo sed.vbs s/^\d+\s*$/ < in.txt (in.txt being your initial text)

and you will obtain the expected output...

^\d+\s*$

Would target any line beginning with one or more digit, followed by 0 or more spaces within one line.

---

That is not the best "pure sed" solution and it can not actually delete lines, but this is a native "vista-compliant" solution...

---

Actually, the following hack deliberately interpreting the "d sed-command" could be able to 'delete' lines:

Dim pat, patparts, rxp, inp
pat = WScript.Arguments(0)
patparts = Split(pat,"/")
Set rxp = new RegExp
rxp.Global = True
rxp.Multiline = False
rxp.Pattern = patparts(1)
Do While Not WScript.StdIn.AtEndOfStream
  inp = WScript.StdIn.ReadLine()
  out = rxp.Replace(inp, patparts(2))
  if not patparts(2)="d" or not out="d" Then
    WScript.Echo out
  end if
Loop

cscript /Nologo sed.vbs s/^\d+\s*$/ < in.txt would actually produce:

[aaa bbb]
[ccc ddd]

---

In a .bat, you could have a sed.bat:

cscript /Nologo sed.vbs %1 < %2

and then execute that .bat like this:

C:\prog\sed>sed.bat s/^\d+\s*$/d in.txt

Answer 3

Take a look at the section "Delete between marker 1 and marker2" on this sed hints page

Applying it on your example. clean.sed:

/^\[aaa bbb\]$/,/^\[ccc ddd\]$/{
 /^\[aaa bbb\]$/!{
   /^\[ccc ddd\]$/!d
 }
}

Run using:

sed -f clean.sed inputfile.txt

To edit the input file "in place", use the -i option to sed:

sed -i.bak -f clean.sed datafile.txt

A backup copy of the file with the name "datafile.txt.bak" is saved before editing the original.

EDIT: Since the assumption that the markers where always on a line of their own was wrong, heres a script that can handle markers in the middle of a line:

/\[aaa bbb\]/,/\[ccc ddd\]/{
  s/\[aaa bbb\].*/[aaa bbb]/
  s/.*\[ccc ddd\]/[ccc ddd]/
  /\[aaa bbb\]$/!{
    /^\[ccc ddd\]/!d
  }
}

For this input:

foo[aaa bbb]1
2
3
4
5[ccc ddd]bar
foo
[aaa bbb]
1
2
3
[ccc ddd]
bar

It produces:

foo[aaa bbb]
[ccc ddd]bar
foo
[aaa bbb]
[ccc ddd]
bar

Note! It can't handle files where the markers can appear on the same line.

EDIT again: If the input format for marker 1 is such that you can always count on it being on a line of its own you can simplify the script some:

/^\[aaa bbb\]$/,/\[ccc ddd\]/{
  s/.*\[ccc ddd\]/[ccc ddd]/
  /^\[aaa bbb\]$/!{
    /^\[ccc ddd\]/!d
  }
}

(Anchoring marker 1 at the beginning and end of a line and skipping the trimming of the marker 1 line.)

Answer 4

Note that sed is available for Windows, along with a whole bunch of other GNU utilities. I'm not sure if you're asking whether there's an equivalent, or how to actually do it once you've got the tool.

Answer 5

D:\tmp\sed.exe -f sedscript.sed D:\tmp\test.txt >c:\tmp\test2.txt


/^\[Product Feature\]$/,/^\[Dm$/{
 /^\[Product Feature\]$/!{
 /^\[Dm$/!d 
 }
 } 

Answer 6

I would like to clarify the question. I should delete all the symbols between marker1 and marker2. Marker1 and marker2 are just some words or parts of text but not obligatory lines. For example I would have:

[aaa bbb] [ccc]
1
2
3
4
5
[www yyy]

If I want to delete the text between [aaa bbb] and [www yyy] I should have as output:

[aaa bbb] 
[www yyy]