UNIQ(1)

NAME
uniq - report or omit repeated lines

SYNOPSIS
uniq [OPTION]... [INPUT [OUTPUT]]

DESCRIPTION

Filter adjacent matching lines from INPUT (or standard input), writing to OUTPUT (or standard output).

With no options, matching lines are merged to the first occurrence.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-c, --count
    prefix lines by the number of occurrences

-d, --repeated
    only print duplicate lines, one for each group

-D  print all duplicate lines

--all-repeated[=METHOD]
    like -D, but allow separating groups with an empty line; METHOD={none(default),prepend,separate}

-f, --skip-fields=N
    avoid comparing the first N fields

--group[=METHOD]
    show all items, separating groups with an empty line; METHOD={separate(default),prepend,append,both}

-i, --ignore-case
    ignore differences in case when comparing

-s, --skip-chars=N
    avoid comparing the first N characters

-u, --unique
    only print unique lines

-z, --zero-terminated
    line delimiter is NUL, not newline

-w, --check-chars=N
    compare no more than N characters in lines

--help
    display this help and exit

--version
    output version information and exit

A field is a run of blanks (usually spaces and/or TABs), then non-blank characters. Fields are skipped before chars.

'uniq' does not detect repeated lines unless they are adjacent. You may want to sort the input first, or use 'sort -u' without 'uniq'.

AUTHOR
Written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

SEE ALSO
comm(1), join(1), sort(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/uniq>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) uniq invocation'

Packaged by Gentoo (9.11 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.