Rich-- I'm not certain from your email exactly which columns you want to de-duplicate on, but the solution is to use sort:
sort -u -k1,4 inputfile >inputfile.de-duped The "-k" option should specify the range of columns you want to use for de-duplication. The "-u" tells sort to only output the lines that are unique on those columns. Of course your output will also end up being re-sorted on those columns, so you may have to re-order it again after you're finished de-duping. -- Hal Pomeranz, Founder/CEO Deer Run Associates h...@deer-run.com Computer Forensic Investigations, Information Security, Training _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug