How to use sed/grep to extract text between two words?

Question

I am trying to output a string that contains everything between two words of a string:

input:

\"Here is a String\"

output:

Answer 1

Problem. My stored Claws Mail messages are wrapped as follows, and I am trying to extract the Subject lines:

Subject: [SLC38A9 lysosomal arginine sensor; mTORC1 pathway] Key molecular
 link in major cell growth pathway: Findings point to new potential
 therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer [mTORC1 Activator SLC38A9 Is
 Required to Efflux Essential Amino Acids from Lysosomes and Use Protein as
 a Nutrient] [Re: Nutrient sensor in key growth-regulating metabolic pathway
 identified [Lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 signals arginine
 sufficiency to mTORC1]]
Message-ID: <20171019190902.18741771@VictoriasJourney.com>

Per A2 in this thread, How to use sed/grep to extract text between two words? the first expression, below, "works" as long as the matched text does not contain a newline:

grep -o -P '(?<=Subject: ).*(?=molecular)' corpus/01

[SLC38A9 lysosomal arginine sensor; mTORC1 pathway] Key

However, despite trying numerous variants (.+?; /s; ...), I could not get these to work:

grep -o -P '(?<=Subject: ).*(?=link)' corpus/01
grep -o -P '(?<=Subject: ).*(?=therapeutic)' corpus/01
etc.

Solution 1.

Per Extract text between two strings on different lines

sed -n '/Subject: /{:a;N;/Message-ID:/!ba; s/\n/ /g; s/\s\s*/ /g; s/.*Subject: \|Message-ID:.*//g;p}' corpus/01

which gives

[SLC38A9 lysosomal arginine sensor; mTORC1 pathway] Key molecular link in major cell growth pathway: Findings point to new potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer [mTORC1 Activator SLC38A9 Is Required to Efflux Essential Amino Acids from Lysosomes and Use Protein as a Nutrient] [Re: Nutrient sensor in key growth-regulating metabolic pathway identified [Lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 signals arginine sufficiency to mTORC1]]                              

Solution 2.*

Per How can I replace a newline (\n) using sed?

sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/ /g' corpus/01

will replace newlines with a space.

Chaining that with A2 in How to use sed/grep to extract text between two words?, we get:

sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/ /g' corpus/01 | grep -o -P '(?<=Subject: ).*(?=Message-ID:)'

which gives

[SLC38A9 lysosomal arginine sensor; mTORC1 pathway] Key molecular  link in major cell growth pathway: Findings point to new potential  therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer [mTORC1 Activator SLC38A9 Is  Required to Efflux Essential Amino Acids from Lysosomes and Use Protein as  a Nutrient] [Re: Nutrient sensor in key growth-regulating metabolic pathway  identified [Lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 signals arginine  sufficiency to mTORC1]] 

This variant removes double spaces:

sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/ /g; s/\s\s*/ /g' corpus/01 | grep -o -P '(?<=Subject: ).*(?=Message-ID:)'

giving

[SLC38A9 lysosomal arginine sensor; mTORC1 pathway] Key molecular link in major cell growth pathway: Findings point to new potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer [mTORC1 Activator SLC38A9 Is Required to Efflux Essential Amino Acids from Lysosomes and Use Protein as a Nutrient] [Re: Nutrient sensor in key growth-regulating metabolic pathway identified [Lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 signals arginine sufficiency to mTORC1]]