xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/uniq/uniq.1 (revision db3296cf)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: uniq.1,v 1.9 2003/06/10 09:12:12 jmc Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: uniq.1,v 1.5 1994/12/06 07:51:15 jtc Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
8.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
9.\"
10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
12.\" are met:
13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
16.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
17.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
18.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
19.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
20.\"    without specific prior written permission.
21.\"
22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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33.\"
34.\"     @(#)uniq.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
35.\"
36.Dd December 8, 2002
37.Dt UNIQ 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm uniq
41.Nd report or filter out repeated lines in a file
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm uniq
44.Op Fl c | Fl d | Fl u
45.Op Fl f Ar fields
46.Op Fl s Ar chars
47.Oo
48.Ar input_file
49.Op Ar output_file
50.Oc
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility reads the standard input comparing adjacent lines and writes
55a copy of each unique input line to the standard output.
56The second and succeeding copies of identical adjacent input lines are
57not written.
58Repeated lines in the input will not be detected if they are not adjacent,
59so it may be necessary to sort the files first.
60.Pp
61The options are as follows:
62.Bl -tag -width Ds
63.It Fl c
64Precede each output line with the count of the number of times the line
65occurred in the input, followed by a single space.
66.It Fl d
67Don't output lines that are not repeated in the input.
68.It Fl f Ar fields
69Ignore the first
70.Ar fields
71in each input line when doing comparisons.
72A field is a string of non-blank characters separated from adjacent fields
73by blanks.
74Field numbers are one based, i.e., the first field is field one.
75.It Fl s Ar chars
76Ignore the first
77.Ar chars
78characters in each input line when doing comparisons.
79If specified in conjunction with the
80.Fl f
81option, the first
82.Ar chars
83characters after the first
84.Ar fields
85fields will be ignored.
86Character numbers are one based, i.e., the first character is character one.
87.It Fl u
88Don't output lines that are repeated in the input.
89.\".It Fl Ns Ar n
90.\"(Deprecated; replaced by
91.\".Fl f ) .
92.\"Ignore the first n
93.\"fields on each input line when doing comparisons,
94.\"where n is a number.
95.\"A field is a string of non-blank
96.\"characters separated from adjacent fields
97.\"by blanks.
98.\".It Cm \&\(pl Ns Ar n
99.\"(Deprecated; replaced by
100.\".Fl s ) .
101.\"Ignore the first
102.\".Ar m
103.\"characters when doing comparisons, where
104.\".Ar m
105.\"is a
106.\"number.
107.El
108.Pp
109If additional arguments are specified on the command line, the first
110such argument is used as the name of an input file, the second is used
111as the name of an output file.
112A file name of
113.Ql -
114denotes the standard input or the standard output
115.Pq depending on its position on the command line .
116.Pp
117The
118.Nm
119utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
120.Sh SEE ALSO
121.Xr sort 1
122.Sh STANDARDS
123The historic
124.Cm \&\(pl Ns Ar number
125and
126.Fl Ns Ar number
127options have been deprecated but are still supported in this implementation.
128.Pp
129The
130.Nm
131utility is expected to be
132.St -p1003.2
133compatible.
134