Sed/Awk - remove blankspaces / join lines in ldif dump

Question

I got some entries in my ldif file that makes my dump bad for next import.

sambaPasswordHistory: 712BC301C488FD2651BEF5AA11899950547B9ED3C059FF83CE39049B
 BAEECB31692629A94A3C1F4737E3EA854C001704793DB9A67EB977563CE601DF98E7E23C2851F
 082D3D695C8655378629DCCDAF125ACA63141B361190ABC750AF403FDEF000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
homeDirectory: /home_nfs/

How can I make using sed/awk/etc to change it to

sambaPasswordHistory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
homeDirectory: /home_nfs/

Aka keep everything in one line

Answer 1

One way using GNU sed:

sed -n 'H; ${ x; s/\n//; s/\n //g; p}' file.txt

Result:

sambaPasswordHistory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
homeDirectory: /home_nfs/

Answer 2

$ cat file
sambaPasswordHistory: abc
 def
 12345
 67
homeDirectory: /home_nfs/
$
$ awk 'NR>1 && !sub(/^ /,""){print s; s=""} {s = s $0} END{print s}' file
sambaPasswordHistory: abcdef1234567
homeDirectory: /home_nfs/

Answer 3

This might work for you (GNU sed):

sed ':a;N;s/\n //;ta;P;D' file

Open a window of two lines. Remove a newline followed by a space and repeat the pattern fails. Finally print the first line and if there is still a second line in the pattern space, repeat.

Answer 4

One way to do using sed:

sed ':a;$!N;s/\n //;ta'  file

sed joins(N) every line other than the last line($!). After joining, the newline followed by space(\n ) is removed. 'ta' is to loop to the branch 'a' till the substitution fails.

Answer 5

If the only occurrences of \n, i.e. newline followed by space, are where the lines need to be joined, you could use bbe like this:

<file bbe -e 's/\n //'

Answer 6

Another solution:

awk 'ORS="";!/home/{$1=$1; print}{RS="\n"}END{print "\n" $0 "\n"}' file