NL(1) User Commands NL(1)
NAME
nl - number lines of files
SYNOPSIS
nl [OPTION]... [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
Write each FILE to standard output, with line numbers added.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-b, --body-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering body lines
-d, --section-delimiter=CC
use CC for logical page delimiters
-f, --footer-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering footer lines
-h, --header-numbering=STYLE
use STYLE for numbering header lines
-i, --line-increment=NUMBER
line number increment at each line
-l, --join-blank-lines=NUMBER
group of NUMBER empty lines counted as one
-n, --number-format=FORMAT
insert line numbers according to FORMAT
-p, --no-renumber
do not reset line numbers for each section
-s, --number-separator=STRING
add STRING after (possible) line number
-v, --starting-line-number=NUMBER
first line number for each section
-w, --number-width=NUMBER
use NUMBER columns for line numbers
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
Default options are: -bt -d'\:' -fn -hn -i1 -l1 -n'rn' -s<TAB> -v1 -w6
CC are two delimiter characters used to construct logical page delim-
iters; a missing second character implies ':'. As a GNU extension one
can specify more than two characters, and also specifying the empty
string (-d '') disables section matching.
STYLE is one of:
a number all lines
t number only nonempty lines
n number no lines
pBRE number only lines that contain a match for the basic regular ex-
pression, BRE
FORMAT is one of:
ln left justified, no leading zeros
rn right justified, no leading zeros
rz right justified, leading zeros
AUTHOR
Written by Scott Bartram and David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) nl invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/li-
censes/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
GNU coreutils 9.7 June 2025 NL(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 07:12:27 CET 2025.