How to print lines between two patterns, inclusive or exclusive (in sed, AWK or Perl)?

Question

I have a file like the following and I would like to print the lines between two given patterns PAT1 and PAT2.

Answer 1

For completeness, here is a Perl solution:

Print lines between PAT1 and PAT2 - include PAT1 and PAT2

perl -ne '/PAT1/../PAT2/ and print' FILE

or:

perl -ne 'print if /PAT1/../PAT2/' FILE

Print lines between PAT1 and PAT2 - exclude PAT1 and PAT2

perl -ne '/PAT1/../PAT2/ and !/PAT1/ and !/PAT2/ and print' FILE

or:

perl -ne 'if (/PAT1/../PAT2/) {print unless /PAT1/ or /PAT2/}' FILE 

Print lines between PAT1 and PAT2 - exclude PAT1 only

perl -ne '/PAT1/../PAT2/ and !/PAT1/ and print' FILE

Print lines between PAT1 and PAT2 - exclude PAT2 only

perl -ne '/PAT1/../PAT2/ and !/PAT2/ and print' FILE

See also:

• Range operator section in perldoc perlop for more on the /PAT1/../PAT2/ grammar:

Range operator

...In scalar context, ".." returns a boolean value. The operator is bistable, like a flip-flop, and emulates the line-range (comma) operator of sed, awk, and various editors.

• For the -n option, see perldoc perlrun, which makes Perl behave like sed -n.

• Perl Cookbook, 6.8 for a detailed discussion of extracting a range of lines.