cat /etc/some.conf|grep -Ev '^#|^;|^$' This assumes that comments start with # or ; (adjust as necessary). Also note that the ^$ omits blank lines.........

Here's what SMART tells me the serial number is: === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 Serial Number: JP2940HQ3ZY7KH Firmware Version: JP4OA3EA User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall] ATA Version is: 8 ATA Standard is:&nb........