Deleting (Only) First Blank Line in File

[Leo de Wit]

In article <1651 at fallst.UUCP> tkevans at fallst.UUCP (Tim Evans) writes:
|Can someone help me to delete the _first_ occurring blank line of a file
|(whereever it occurs) without deleting subsequent ones?
|
|You'd think the following would work, but it doesn't:
|
|	sed 's/^$//1' foo > newfoo

Sure. It isn't valid sed syntax.

|
|Solutions other than those using 'perl' are preferred.

Here's a quick and dirty one with sed:

sed -n -e '
    /^$/{
        : back
        n
        p
        b back
    }
    p' foo >newfoo

All lines before the first empty line are printed by the last 'p' command.
Then, at the first empty line, each next line is read in and printed.

    Leo.