bash function to print a range of lines defined by first and last occurrence of a pattern (e.g., dated log messages)

gistfile1.txt

function ranger {
    # print a range of lines defined by first and last occurence of pattern
    local pattern="$1" && shift
    local file="$1" && shift
    if [ -z "$file" ] || [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
        echo "Must specify one file exactly" >&2
        return 1
    fi
    if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
        echo "$file: No such file or directory" >&2
        return 1
    fi
    local num1=$(grep -n "$pattern" "$file" | head -1 | awk -F: '{ print $1 }' )
    if [ -z "$num1" ]; then
        echo "$pattern does not appear in $file" >&2
        return 1
    fi
    local num2=$(grep -n "$pattern" "$file" | tail -1 | awk -F: '{ print $1 }' )
    sed -n "$num1,${num2}p" "$file"
}

function today {
    local today=$(/bin/date +"%Y-%m-%d")
    ranger "^$today" "$@"
}

Q: How many exceptions were logged today in catalina.out?
A: today catalina.out | grep -c Exception: