[Linux-disciples] Sorting lines matching a pattern

[Stephen R Laniel]

On Sun, Jul 24, 2005 at 11:11:16PM -0400, Chung-chieh Shan wrote:
> :g/^\*/.,/^\($\|[^*]\)/-1!sort

That is perhaps the world's most info-dense haiku.

Let me see if I can parse this. (Vi is intended for
efficiency, not clarity.)

1) Select all those lines matching '^\*'.
2) On the matching lines, select from the current line ('.')
up to either the last line of the document ('$') or the
first line that doesn't match '^\*'.
3) With those lines selected, sort them. But what's the '-1'
about? Does that mean 'back up one line'?

This method doesn't generalize to documents formatted like
so, does it?

* Some stuff
[blank line]
* Some other stuff
[blank line]

I'm still working on parsing. Thanks, Ken.

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at laniels.org
+(617) 308-5571
http://laniels.org/
PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key
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