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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-20T15:24:54+00:00

Still dealing with quirky files (see my previous post ), I am using SED

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Still dealing with quirky files (see my previous post), I am using SED to cleanup some that are laid out like so:

....Receiver ID   = 028912781755
    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786
    Current temp  = 50C
    PowerOnHours  = 13166h
    Receiver ID   = 028920310381
    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333
    Current temp  = 51C
    PowerOnHours  = 9099h...

My boss wants files like this one to be tab (“\t”) delimited like so

Receiver ID = 028912781755 Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786 Current temp  = 50C PowerOnHours  = 13166h

This is my sed code:

sed -e '/.$/N; s/.\n/\t/'

It works but strangely, not everywhere. This is the output I get

Receiver ID   = 028920310381 Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333 
Current temp  = 51 PowerOnHours  = 9099h

======================================================================
I need to be more specific. All suggestions I got produce the same result: it appends everything on one singly line. Not what I am looking for.

I am looking for:

Receiver ID = ...<tab>Serial Number = ...<tab>Current temp  = ...<tab>PowerOnHours  = ...<tab><carriage return>
Receiver ID = ...<tab>Serial Number = ...<tab>Current temp  = ...<tab>PowerOnHours  = ...<tab>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Number of fields vary but end in PowerOnHours

    awk 'ORS=/PowerOnHours/?RS:"\t"' ./infile

    Proof of Concept

    $ awk 'ORS=/PowerOnHours/?RS:"\t"' receiverid
Receiver ID   = 028912781755    Special Field = foo bar baz     Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786 Current temp  = 50C     PowerOnHours  = 13166h
Receiver ID   = 028920310381    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333 Current temp  = 51C     PowerOnHours  = 9099h
Receiver ID   = 028912781755    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786 Current temp  = 50C     PowerOnHours  = 13166h
Receiver ID   = 028920310381    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333 Current temp  = 51C     PowerOnHours  = 9099h

    *Note the Special Field on the first line

    Number of fields between records are the same

    awk 'ORS=NR%4?"\t":RS' ./infile

    Proof of Concept

    $ awk 'ORS=NR%4?"\t":RS' ./infile
Receiver ID   = 028912781755    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786 Current temp  = 50C     PowerOnHours  = 13166h
Receiver ID   = 028920310381    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333 Current temp  = 51C     PowerOnHours  = 9099h
Receiver ID   = 028912781755    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0546786 Current temp  = 50C     PowerOnHours  = 13166h
Receiver ID   = 028920310381    Serial Number = WD-WCAUH0898333 Current temp  = 51C     PowerOnHours  = 9099h
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