Recipe: Printing n lines later or before a pattern in file


$ cat actress_rankings.txt  | head -n 20 
1 Keira Knightley 
2 Natalie Portman 
3 Monica Bellucci 
4 Bonnie Hunt 
5 Cameron Diaz 
6 Annie Potts 
7 Liv Tyler 
8 Julie Andrews 
9 Lindsay Lohan 
10 Catherine Zeta-Jones 
11 Cate Blanchett 
12 Sarah Michelle Gellar 
13 Carrie Fisher 
14 Shannon Elizabeth 
15 Julia Roberts 
16 Sally Field 
17 Téa Leoni 
18 Kirsten Dunst 
19 Rene Russo 
20 Jada Pinkett




To print 3 lines after the match line along with match line
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$ grep -A 3 "Cameron Diaz" actress_rankings.txt
5 Cameron Diaz 
6 Annie Potts 
7 Liv Tyler 
8 Julie Andrews 

To print 3 lines before match line including match line
=======================================================
$ grep -B 3 "Cameron Diaz" actress_rankings.txt 
2 Natalie Portman 
3 Monica Bellucci 
4 Bonnie Hunt 
5 Cameron Diaz 

To print lines 2 lines before and after the match line including match line
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$ grep -C 2 "Cameron Diaz" actress_rankings.txt 
3 Monica Bellucci 
4 Bonnie Hunt 
5 Cameron Diaz 
6 Annie Potts 
7 Liv Tyler