Hello Gurus,

I have a big file (more than 2000 lines). Where i have to insert a # at the beginning of 1 above line and at the beginning of 2 below line after finding a pattern. Also insert # at the beginning of line where pattern found. Environment is Red Hat Linux. Also if you can explain, that would be great.
Take an example, please see below texts, Search "Fail" and # 1 line before that and 2 lines after that string (beginning of line). Also # line containing string "Fail".


The file is like below....

Name
Reason = Pass
Reasult
Number
Name
Reason = Pass
Reasult
Number
Name
Reason = Fail
Reasult
Number
Name
Reason = Pass
Reasult
Number
Name
Reason = Fail
Reasult
Number
Name
Reason = Pass
Reasult
Number

Thanks in advance

Sounds like something you could do in vi(m) with a macro. Just record one doing the steps for one of them and repeat it however many times as needed.

Thanks for the and Sefyir. But i have to incorporate it in the flow. user interaction is not an option.

Thanks

sed allows you to read multiple lines into the pattern space - if the data is that structured you could search for "Name" and read the next 3 lines in. Then check for "Fail" and if found use a normal "s" command to place a # at the beginning of each line in the pattern space - gnu sed had the "m" modifier for that.