Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!umbc3!rostamia
From: rostamia@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Rouben Rostamian)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Deleting (Only) First Blank Line in File
Message-ID: <3545@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>
Date: 30 Jun 90 17:37:34 GMT
References: <1651@fallst.UUCP>
Reply-To: rostamia@umbc3.umbc.edu.UMBC.EDU (Rouben Rostamian)
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 23

In article <1651@fallst.UUCP> tkevans@fallst.UUCP (Tim Evans) writes:
>Can someone help me to delete the _first_ occurring blank line of a file
>(whereever it occurs) without deleting subsequent ones?

Here are two solutions using awk.  In both cases it is assumed that the
command is executed as a script, and $1 denotes the input file.

Solution 1:

awk < $1 'BEGIN{RS=""}
     { if (NR <= 2 )
           print $0;
       else
           print "\n" $0;
     }'

Solution 2:   Note: Here X denotes a character which does not occur in the
input file.  Replace with a more suitable character.  A control character,
such as ^A, may be a good choice.

awk < $1 'BEGIN{RS=""} {print $0; ORS=""; RS="X"}'

--