Deleting Lines

The DELETE subcommand deletes one or more lines, beginning with the current line.

To delete only the current line, enter:

delete

To delete more than one line, specify the number of lines in the operand; for example,

delete 5

deletes five lines, including the current line.

To delete the rest of the file, enter:

delete *

To delete a number of lines without counting how many, you can use the form:

Lines are deleted, starting with the current line, up to (but not including) the line containing the specified string.

For example, a file contains the following lines and the first line shown is the current line:

  a portable television
  a transistor radio
  a frisbee
  a loaf of bread
  a jug of wine
  thou

delete/bread/

deletes all lines from the current line up to, but not including, the line containing “bread”. All that remains is:

  a loaf of bread
  a jug of wine
  thou