sed multiline delete with pattern

Question

I want to delete all multiline occurences of a pattern like

  {START-TAG
  foo bar
  ID: 111
  foo bar
  END-TAG}

  {START-TAG
  foo bar
  ID: 222
  foo bar         


        

Answer 1

You can use the following:

sed '/{START-TAG/{:a;N;/END-TAG}/!ba};/ID: 222/d' data.txt

Breakdown:

/{START-TAG/ { # Match '{START-TAG'
:a             # Create label a
N              # Read next line into pattern space
/END-TAG}/!    # If not matching 'END-TAG}'...
           ba  # Then goto a
}              # End /{START-TAG/ block
/ID: 222/d     # If pattern space matched 'ID: 222' then delete it.