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.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.50.1.
.TH NL "1" "February 2026" "GNU coreutils 9.10" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
nl \- number lines of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B nl
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Write each FILE to standard output, with line numbers added.
.PP
With no FILE, or when FILE is \-, read standard input.
.PP
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-b'\fB\-b, \-\-body\-numbering=\,STYLE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use STYLE for numbering body lines
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-d'\fB\-d, \-\-section\-delimiter=\,CC\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use CC for logical page delimiters
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-f'\fB\-f, \-\-footer\-numbering=\,STYLE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use STYLE for numbering footer lines
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-h'\fB\-h, \-\-header\-numbering=\,STYLE\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use STYLE for numbering header lines
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-i'\fB\-i, \-\-line\-increment=\,NUMBER\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
line number increment at each line
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-l'\fB\-l, \-\-join\-blank\-lines=\,NUMBER\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
group of NUMBER empty lines counted as one
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-n'\fB\-n, \-\-number\-format=\,FORMAT\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
insert line numbers according to FORMAT
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-p'\fB\-p, \-\-no\-renumber\fP\X'tty: link'
do not reset line numbers for each section
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-s'\fB\-s, \-\-number\-separator=\,STRING\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
add STRING after (possible) line number
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-v'\fB\-v, \-\-starting\-line\-number=\,NUMBER\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
first line number for each section
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#nl-w'\fB\-w, \-\-number\-width=\,NUMBER\fP\X'tty: link'\/\fR
use NUMBER columns for line numbers
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl#nl--help'\fB\-\-help\fP\X'tty: link'
display this help and exit
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl#nl--version'\fB\-\-version\fP\X'tty: link'
output version information and exit
.PP
Default options are: \fB\-bt\fR \fB\-d\fR'\e:' \fB\-fn\fR \fB\-hn\fR \fB\-i1\fR \fB\-l1\fR \fB\-n\fR'rn' \fB\-s\fR<TAB> \fB\-v1\fR \fB\-w6\fR
.PP
CC are two delimiter characters used to construct logical page delimiters;
a missing second character implies ':'. As a GNU extension one can specify
more than two characters, and also specifying the empty string (\fB\-d\fR '')
disables section matching.
.PP
STYLE is one of:
.TP
a
number all lines
.TP
t
number only nonempty lines
.TP
n
number no lines
.TP
pBRE
number only lines that contain a match for the basic regular
expression, BRE
.PP
FORMAT is one of:
.TP
ln
left justified, no leading zeros
.TP
rn
right justified, no leading zeros
.TP
rz
right justified, leading zeros
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Scott Bartram and David MacKenzie.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to: bug\-coreutils@gnu.org
.br
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
.br
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl>
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) nl invocation\(aq
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