delete all lines between two patterns 1

[eagertotry]

I am trying to delete lines from a file between a pair of patterns. I know this can be easily done in sed or awk, but I am not getting it today.

cat file1
something
# BEGIN
to be deleted
this one too
# END
whatever

I want to delete all lines from BEGIN to END, both included.

Any help is appreciated

 

[PHV]

You wanted simply this ?
sed '/BEGIN/,/END/d' /patth/to/input > output

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[futurelet]

awk '/BEGIN/,/END/{next}1'

 

[eagertotry]

Thanks PHV. Yeah, it was as simple as that. But then there are days. I was doing it with awk and somehow couldn't get it.

Futurelet, awk code gives error for me:

$ awk '/BEGIN/,/END/{next}1' file
awk: syntax error near line 1
awk: bailing out near line 1

 

[futurelet]

awk '/BEGIN/,/END/{next}1' file

works with awk, gawk, and mawk (I just tested it).
You're probably using something antique and obsolete.

If you have nawk, use it instead of awk because on some systems awk is very old and lacks many useful features. Under Solaris, use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk.
And of course, see if you have gawk or mawk.