NL(1) General Commands Manual NL(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

nl - Number lines of files

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**nl** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Number lines of files

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**--help**](#help)

Print help information.

[**-b**, **--body-numbering** *<STYLE>*](#b)

use STYLE for numbering body lines

[**-d**, **--section-delimiter** *<CC>*](#d)

use CC for separating logical pages

[**-f**, **--footer-numbering** *<STYLE>*](#f)

use STYLE for numbering footer lines

[**-h**, **--header-numbering** *<STYLE>*](#h)

use STYLE for numbering header lines

[**-i**, **--line-increment** *<NUMBER>*](#i)

line number increment at each line

[**-l**, **--join-blank-lines** *<NUMBER>*](#l)

group of NUMBER empty lines counted as one

[**-n**, **--number-format** *<FORMAT>*](#n)

insert line numbers according to FORMAT

*Possible values:*

- ln
- rn
- rz

[**-p**, **--no-renumber**](#p)

do not reset line numbers at logical pages

[**-s**, **--number-separator** *<STRING>*](#s)

add STRING after (possible) line number

[**-v**, **--starting-line-number** *<NUMBER>*](#v)

first line number on each logical page

[**-w**, **--number-width** *<NUMBER>*](#w)

use NUMBER columns for line numbers

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

STYLE is one of:

\- a number all lines  
\- t number only nonempty lines  
\- n number no lines  
\- pBRE number only lines that contain a match for the basic regular expression, BRE

FORMAT is one of:

\- ln left justified, no leading zeros  
\- rn right justified, no leading zeros  
\- rz right justified, leading zeros

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-09-17

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Document: nl(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils