How can I set the grep after context to be “until the next blank line”?

Question

With grep I know how to set the context to a fixed number of lines. Is it possible to show a context based on an arbitrary string condition, like set after-context to \"until th

Answer 1

Personally I like the answer from @William Pursell as the before context is often useful (eg when grepping for things in ini files). If you actually want only the after context with awk you can do this:

$ cat demo.ini 
[foo]
aaa = 1
bbb = 2
ccc = 3

[bar]
eee = 8
fff = 0
ggg = 1

[baz]
xxx = 1
yyy = 0
zzz = 2
$ awk '/bar/,/^$/' demo.ini 
[bar]
eee = 8
fff = 0
ggg = 1

$ awk '/fff/,/^$/' demo.ini 
fff = 0
ggg = 1

$

Compare with the RS= version:

$ awk '/bar/' RS= demo.ini 
[bar]
eee = 8
fff = 0
ggg = 1
$ awk '/fff/' RS= demo.ini 
[bar]
eee = 8
fff = 0
ggg = 1