Read text between two lines containing a string

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,
I have text file like the following:

Start
a
b
121
c
d
End
Start
a
31
e
f
End
Start
p
o
i
k
l
993
End

Now I want to output the Start-End block that contains my search string
So if I search for '121' it should output the first block, search for 'k' then output the last block

Thanks,
-sri

2 
 
awk -v V="121" ' /Start/ {
        s=x;
        s=$0;
} !/Start/&&!/End/ {
        s=s RS $0;
} $0 == V {
        f = 1;
} /End/ && f == 1 {
        s=s RS $0;
        print s;
        f = 0;
}' file
3

Got the solution

awk '/Start/{s=x}{s=s$0"\n"}/121/{p=1}/End/ && p{print s;exit}' <filename>
4

Converting it each section to rows, simplify handling it.

awk '{if ($0~"End") {print $0"\n"} else {print $0","}}' ORS="" | awk '/k/'
Start,p,o,i,k,l,993,End
5

Note that this program will not print another section if the search pattern is repeated. But if that is what you want, then it is OK.

6

Hi bipinajith, the search string will not appear in multiple blocks, thanks for thinking about this.

After I posted my question I found solution based on the following link (credit goes to this):