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
delimiters; 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
expression, 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
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/nl>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) nl invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 March 2026 nl(1)
coreutils 9.10 - Generated Thu Apr 2 15:06:31 CDT 2026