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From: Mark Willson <cdr.nil@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: is there a way of usinf greo to find 3 or 4 blank lines?
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Gary Kline wrote:
>> 	Yes, this works just fine.  I findthat there are about 130 places that I need to
>> 	track...  --yeah, i did over-do it in the time-breaks in my story.  
>>
>> 	Is there a way of printing the string/line in the `manuscript' file along with the line
>> 	number?  I'm well into a copyedit of the manuscript and would rather not start over!
>>
>> 	thanks for this.
>>
> :wq
> 
> 	Sorry:: sounds a bit moronic:: not print the blank line/newline!  but print the
> 	NR-1-th line.

Gary,

The following version should do what you want:

BEGIN {
     ncnt = 0
     prev = "BOF"
}
/^ *$/ {
	ncnt++;
	if (ncnt > 3) {
		print "Emphasis at " NR ": " prev;
		prev = "-multiple-"
		ncnt = 0;
	}
	next;
}
        {ncnt = 0; prev = $0}

-mark