here is an article for everyone interested in awk and sed. it has some links two some text files containing many one-liners and then other links that go into an in-depth explanation on how the one-liners work. i found it illuminating: http://osnews.com/story/21004/Awk_and_Sed_One-Liners_Explained _______________________________________________________________________ This mailing list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Invensys Process Systems (formerly The Foxboro Company). Use the info you obtain here at your own risks. Read http://www.thecassandraproject.org/disclaimer.html foxboro mailing list: //www.freelists.org/list/foxboro to subscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=join to unsubscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=leave