lines

SYNOPSIS

       usually patternfile

DESCRIPTION

       usually  copies  lines  from  stdin to stdout.  It expects
each line to
       match at least one of the patterns listed in  patternfile.
If  a  line
       does not match, usually prints it to stderr.

       To  keep  its  memory  use bounded, usually truncates long
lines to 500
       characters before checking them  against  patternfile  and
printing  them
       to  stderr.  It does not truncate the copy printed to std-
out.

       If usually receives a HUP  signal,  it  reads  patternfile
again.

PATTERNS

       patternfile   contains  a set of patterns, one pattern per
line.  A pat-
       tern is a string of characters and wildcards.  A  wildcard
matches  any
       string   of   characters   that  does not include the next
character in the
       pattern.

       For example, the pattern

       * tcpcontrol: ok * *:*:25 *

       matches any line that consists of (1) non-space characters
followed  by
       a   space;  (2)  tcpcontrol:_ok_; (3) non-space characters
followed by a
       space; (4) non-colon characters followed   by   a   colon;
(5)  non-colon
       characters   followed   by   a colon; (6) 25_; and (7) any
characters fol-
       lowed by a newline.

       usually always  matches  blank  lines  and  partial  final
lines.

SEE ALSO

       writeerr(1)