[SOLVED] How to join lines that end with - but do not start with space in SED?

Issue

I am working on sed script that merges adjacent lines of text ending with the - character, if there are no white characters (space, tab) before it, together with the next line.

I have a script that doesn exactly that, however it doesn't filter properly.

My script

 #!/bin/bash
 file=$1
 sed ':a;/-$/{N;s/-\n//;ba}' $file

This is my file input

line1- 
line2

line3-
line4

line5 -
 line6

And this is the result I want to see

line1- 
line2

line3line4

line5 -
 line6

And this is what I get

line1- 
line2

line3line4

line5 line6

Solution

You might use a pattern to capture a non whitespace char in a group, and use that group in the replacement without using a label:

sed -E '/-$/{N;s/([^[:space:]])-\n/\1/}' $file

Output

line1- 
line2

line3line4

line5 -
 line6

See a sed demo.

Answered By - The fourth bird

Answer Checked By - Cary Denson (WPSolving Admin)