ed(1) ed(1)
ed, red - text editor
ed [-s] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
red [-s] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
ed is the standard text editor. red is a restricted version of ed. If
the file argument is given, ed simulates an e command (see below) on the
named file; that is to say, the file is read into ed's buffer so that it
can be edited. Both ed and red process supplementary code set characters
in file, and recognize supplementary code set characters in the prompt
string given to the -p option (see below) according to the locale
specified in the LC_CTYPE environment variable (see LANG in environ(5)).
In regular expressions, pattern searches are performed on characters, not
bytes, as described below.
-s Suppresses the printing of byte counts by e, r, and w commands, of
diagnostics from e and q commands, and of the ! prompt after a
!shell command.
-p Allows the user to specify a prompt string. The string can contain
supplementary code set characters.
-x Encryption option; when used, ed simulates an X command and prompts
the user for a key. This key is used to encrypt and decrypt text
using the algorithm of crypt(1). The X command makes an educated
guess to determine whether text read in is encrypted or not. The
temporary buffer file is encrypted also, using a transformed version
of the key typed in for the -x option. See crypt(1). Also, see the
NOTES section at the end of this reference page.
-C Encryption option; the same as the -x option, except that ed
simulates a C command. The C command is like the X command, except
that all text read in is assumed to have been encrypted.
ed operates on a copy of the file it is editing; changes made to the copy
have no effect on the file until a w (write) command is given. The copy
of the text being edited resides in a temporary file called the buffer.
There is only one buffer.
red is a restricted version of ed. It allows only editing of files in
the current directory. It prohibits executing shell commands via
!shell command. Attempts to bypass these restrictions result in an error
message (restricted shell).
Both ed and red support the fspec(4) formatting capability. After
including a format specification as the first line of file and invoking
ed with your terminal in stty -tabs or stty tab3 mode (see stty(1)), the
specified tab stops are automatically used when scanning file. For
example, if the first line of a file contained:
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<:t5,10,15 s72:>
tab stops are set at columns 5, 10, and 15, and a maximum line length of
72 is imposed. When you are entering text into the file, this format is
not in effect; instead, because of being in stty -tabs or stty tab3 mode,
tabs are expanded to every eighth column.
Commands to ed have a simple and regular structure: zero, one, or two
addresses followed by a single-character command, possibly followed by
parameters to that command. These addresses specify one or more lines in
the buffer. Every command that requires addresses has default addresses,
so that the addresses can very often be omitted.
In general, only one command can appear on a line. Certain commands
allow the input of text. This text is placed in the appropriate place in
the buffer. While ed is accepting text, it is said to be in input mode.
In this mode, no commands are recognized; all input is merely collected.
Leave input mode by typing a period (.) at the beginning of a line,
followed immediately by pressing RETURN.
ed supports a limited form of regular expression notation; regular
expressions are used in addresses to specify lines and in some commands
(for example, s) to specify portions of a line that are to be
substituted. A regular expression specifies a set of character strings.
A member of this set of strings is said to be matched by the regular
expression. The regular expressions allowed by ed are constructed as
follows:
The following one-character regular expressions match a single character:
1.1 An ordinary character (not one of those discussed in 1.2 below) is
a one-character regular expression that matches itself.
1.2 A backslash (\) followed by any special character is a onecharacter
regular expression that matches the special character
itself. The special characters are:
a. ., *, [, and \ (period, asterisk, left square bracket, and
backslash, respectively), which are always special, except
when they appear within square brackets ([]; see 1.4 below).
b. ^ (caret or circumflex), which is special at the beginning of
a regular expression (see 4.1 and 4.3 below), or when it
immediately follows the left of a pair of square brackets ([])
(see 1.4 below).
c. $ (dollar sign), which is special at the end of a regular
expression (see 4.2 below).
d. The character that is special for that specific regular
expression, that is used to bound (or delimit) a regular
expression. (For example, see how slash (/) is used in the g
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command, below.)
1.3 A period (.) is a one-character regular expression that matches any
character, including supplementary code set characters, except
newline.
1.4 A non-empty string of characters enclosed in square brackets ([])
is a one-character regular expression that matches one character,
including supplementary code set characters, in that string. If,
however, the first character of the string is a circumflex (^), the
one-character regular expression matches any character, including
supplementary code set characters, except newline and the remaining
characters in the string. The ^ has this special meaning only if
it occurs first in the string. The minus (-) can be used to
indicate a range of consecutive characters, including supplementary
code set characters; for example, [0-9] is equivalent to
[0123456789]. Characters specifying the range must be from the
same code set; when the characters are from different code sets,
one of the characters specifying the range is matched. The - loses
this special meaning if it occurs first (after an initial ^, if
any) or last in the string. The right square bracket (]) does not
terminate such a string when it is the first character within it
(after an initial ^, if any); for example, []a-f] matches either a
right square bracket (]) or one of the ASCII letters a through f
inclusive. The four characters listed in 1.2.a above stand for
themselves within such a string of characters.
The following rules can be used to construct regular expressions from
one-character regular expressions:
2.1 A one-character regular expression is an regular expression that
matches whatever the one-character regular expression matches.
2.2 A one-character regular expression followed by an asterisk (*) is a
regular expression that matches zero or more occurrences of the
one-character regular expression, which can be a supplementary code
set character. If there is any choice, the longest leftmost string
that permits a match is chosen.
2.3 A one-character regular expression followed by \{m<b>\}, \{m,\}, or
\{m,n<b>\} is a regular expression that matches a range of occurrences
of the one-character regular expression. The values of m and n
must be non-negative integers less than 256; \{m<b>\} matches exactly
m occurrences; \{m,\} matches at least m occurrences; \{m,n<b>\}
matches any number of occurrences between m and n inclusive.
Whenever a choice exists, the regular expression matches as many
occurrences as possible.
2.4 The concatenation of regular expressions is an regular expression
that matches the concatenation of the strings matched by each
component of the regular expression.
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2.5 A regular expression enclosed between the character sequences \(
and \) defines a sub-expression that matches whatever the unadorned
regular expression matches. Inside a sub-expression the anchor
characters ((^) and ($)) have no special meaning and match their
respective literal characters.
2.6 The expression \n matches the same string of characters as was
matched by an expression enclosed between \( and \) earlier in the
same regular expression. Here n is a digit; the sub-expression
specified is that beginning with the n-th occurrence of \( counting
from the left. For example, the expression ^\(.*\)\1$ matches a
line consisting of two repeated appearances of the same string.
A regular expression can be constrained to match words.
3.1 \< constrains a regular expression to match the beginning of a
string or to follow a character that is not a digit, underscore, or
letter. The first character matching the regular expression must
be a digit, underscore, or letter.
3.2 \> constrains a regular expression to match the end of a string or
to precede a character that is not a digit, underscore, or letter.
A regular expression can be constrained to match only an initial segment
or final segment of a line (or both).
4.1 A circumflex (^) at the beginning of a regular expression
constrains that regular expression to match an initial segment of a
line.
4.2 A dollar sign ($) at the end of an entire regular expression
constrains that regular expression to match a final segment of a
line.
4.3 The construction ^regular expression<b>$ constrains the regular
expression to match the entire line.
The null regular expression (for example, //) is equivalent to the last
regular expression encountered. See also the last paragraph of the
DESCRIPTION section below.
To understand addressing in ed it is necessary to know that at any time
there is a current line. Generally speaking, the current line is the
last line affected by a command; the exact effect on the current line is
discussed under the description of each command. addresses are
constructed as follows:
1. The character . addresses the current line.
2. The character $ addresses the last line of the buffer.
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3. A decimal number n addresses the n-th line of the buffer.
4. 'x addresses the line marked with the mark name character x, which
must be a lower-case letter (a-z). Lines are marked with the k
command described below.
5. A regular expression enclosed by slashes (/) addresses the first
line found by searching forward from the line following the current
line toward the end of the buffer and stopping at the first line
containing a string matching the regular expression. If necessary,
the search wraps around to the beginning of the buffer and continues
up to and including the current line, so that the entire buffer is
searched. See also the last paragraph of the DESCRIPTION section
below.
6. A regular expression enclosed in question marks (?) addresses the
first line found by searching backward from the line preceding the
current line toward the beginning of the buffer and stopping at the
first line containing a string matching the regular expression. If
necessary, the search wraps around to the end of the buffer and
continues up to and including the current line. See also the last
paragraph of the DESCRIPTION section below.
7. An address followed by a plus sign (+) or a minus sign (-) followed
by a decimal number specifies that address plus (respectively minus)
the indicated number of lines. A shorthand for .+5 is .5.
8. If an address begins with + or -, the addition or subtraction is
taken with respect to the current line; for example, -5 is
understood to mean .-5.
9. If an address ends with + or -, 1 is added to or subtracted from the
address, respectively. As a consequence of this rule and of Rule 8,
immediately above, the address - refers to the line preceding the
current line. (To maintain compatibility with earlier versions of
the editor, the character ^ in addresses is entirely equivalent to
-.) Moreover, trailing + and - characters have a cumulative effect,
so -- refers to the current line less 2.
10. For convenience, a comma (,) stands for the address pair 1,$, while
a semicolon (;) stands for the pair .,$.
Commands may require zero, one, or two addresses. Commands that require
no addresses regard the presence of an address as an error. Commands
that accept one or two addresses assume default addresses when an
insufficient number of addresses is given; if more addresses are given
than such a command requires, the last one(s) are used.
Typically, addresses are separated from each other by a comma (,). They
can also be separated by a semicolon (;). In the latter case, the first
address is calculated, the current line (.) is set to that value, and
then the second address is calculated. This feature can be used to
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determine the starting line for forward and backward searches (see Rules
5 and 6, above). The second address of any two-address sequence must
correspond to a line in the buffer that follows the line corresponding to
the first address.
In the following list of ed commands, the parentheses shown prior to the
command are not part of the address; rather they show the default
address(es) for the command.
It is generally illegal for more than one command to appear on a line.
However, any command (except e, f, r, or w) can be suffixed by l, n, or p
in which case the current line is either listed, numbered or printed,
respectively, as discussed below under the l, n, and p commands.
(.)a
text
.
The append command accepts zero or more lines of text and appends it
after the addressed line in the buffer. The current line (.) is
left at the last inserted line, or, if there were none, at the
addressed line. Address 0 is legal for this command: it causes the
``appended'' text to be placed at the beginning of the buffer. The
maximum number of bytes that can be entered from a terminal is 256
per line (including the newline character).
(.)c
text
.
The change command deletes the addressed lines from the buffer, then
accepts zero or more lines of text that replaces these lines in the
buffer. The current line (.) is left at the last line input, or, if
there were none, at the first line that was not deleted.
C
Same as the X command, described later, except that ed assumes all
text read in for the e and r commands is encrypted unless a null key
is typed in.
(.,.)d
The delete command deletes the addressed lines from the buffer. The
line after the last line deleted becomes the current line; if the
lines deleted were originally at the end of the buffer, the new last
line becomes the current line.
e file
The edit command deletes the entire contents of the buffer and then
reads the contents of file into the buffer. The current line (.) is
set to the last line of the buffer. If file is not given, the
currently remembered filename, if any, is used (see the f command).
The number of characters read in is printed; file is remembered for
possible use as a default filename in subsequent e, r, and w
commands. If file is replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken
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to be a shell (sh(1)) command whose output is to be read in. Such a
shell command is not remembered as the current filename. See also
DIAGNOSTICS below. If file is replaced by %, and if additional file
arguments were specified on the command line, the next filename
specified on the command line is used.
E file
The Edit command is like e, except that the editor does not check to
see if any changes have been made to the buffer since the last w
command.
f file
If file is given, the file-name command changes the currently
remembered filename to file; otherwise, it prints the currently
remembered filename.
(1,$)g/regular expression<b>/command list
In the global command, the first step is to mark every line that
matches the given regular expression. Then, for every such line,
the given command list is executed with the current line (.)
initially set to that line. A single command or the first of a list
of commands appears on the same line as the global command. All
lines of a multi-line list except the last line must be ended with a
\; a, i, and c commands and associated input are permitted. The .
terminating input mode can be omitted if it would be the last line
of the command list. An empty command list is equivalent to the p
command. The g, G, v, and V commands are not permitted in the
command list. See also the NOTES section and the last paragraph of
the DESCRIPTION section below.
(1,$)G/regular expression<b>/
In the interactive Global command, the first step is to mark every
line that matches the given regular expression. Then, for every
such line, that line is printed, the current line (.) is changed to
that line, and any one command (other than one of the a, c, i, g, G,
v, and V commands) can be input and is executed. After the
execution of that command, the next marked line is printed, and so
on; a newline acts as a null command; an & causes the re-execution
of the most recent command executed within the current invocation of
G. Note that the commands input as part of the execution of the G
command can address and affect any lines in the buffer. The G
command can be terminated by an interrupt signal (ASCII DEL or
BREAK).
h
The help command gives a short error message that explains the
reason for the most recent ? diagnostic.
H
The Help command causes ed to enter a mode in which error messages
are printed for all subsequent ? diagnostics. It also explains the
previous ? if there was one. The H command alternately turns this
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mode on and off; it is initially off.
(.)i
text
.
The insert command accepts zero or more lines of text and inserts it
before the addressed line in the buffer. The current line (.) is
left at the last inserted line, or, if there were none, at the
addressed line. This command differs from the a command only in the
placement of the input text. Address 0 is not legal for this
command. The maximum number of characters that can be entered from
a terminal is 256 per line (including the newline character).
(.,.+1)j
The join command joins contiguous lines by removing the appropriate
newline characters. If exactly one address is given, this command
does nothing.
(.)kx
The mark command marks the addressed line with name x, which must be
a lower-case letter (a-z). The address 'x then addresses this line;
the current line (.) is unchanged.
(.,.)l
The list command prints the addressed lines in an unambiguous way:
a few non-printing characters (for example, tab, backspace) are
represented by visually mnemonic overstrikes. All other nonprinting
characters are printed in octal, and long lines are folded.
An l command can be appended to any command other than e, f, r, or
w.
(.,.)ma
The move command repositions the addressed line(s) after the line
addressed by a. Address 0 is legal for a and causes the addressed
line(s) to be moved to the beginning of the file. It is an error if
address a falls within the range of moved lines; the current line
(.) is left at the last line moved.
(.,.)n
The number command prints the addressed lines, preceding each line
by its line number and a tab character; the current line (.) is left
at the last line printed. The n command can be appended to any
command other than e, f, r, or w.
(.,.)p
The print command prints the addressed lines; the current line (.)
is left at the last line printed. The p command can be appended to
any command other than e, f, r, or w. For example, dp deletes the
current line and prints the new current line.
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P
The editor prompts with a * for all subsequent commands. The P
command alternately turns this mode on and off; it is initially off.
q
The quit command causes ed to exit. No automatic write of a file is
done; however, see DIAGNOSTICS below.
Q
The editor exits without checking if changes have been made in the
buffer since the last w command.
($)r file
The read command reads the contents of file into the buffer. If
file is not given, the currently remembered filename, if any, is
used (see the e and f commands). The currently remembered filename
is not changed unless file is the very first filename mentioned
since ed was invoked. Address 0 is legal for r and causes the file
to be read in at the beginning of the buffer. If the read is
successful, the number of characters read in is printed; the current
line (.) is set to the last line read in. If file is replaced by !,
the rest of the line is taken to be a shell (see sh(1)) command
whose output is to be read in. For example, $r !ls appends current
directory to the end of the file being edited. Such a shell command
is not remembered as the current filename.
(.,.)s/regular expression<b>/replacement<b>/ or
(.,.)s/regular expression<b>/replacement<b>/g or
(.,.)s/regular expression<b>/replacement<b>/n n = 1-512
The substitute command searches each addressed line for an
occurrence of the specified regular expression. In each line in
which a match is found, all (non-overlapped) matched strings are
replaced by the replacement if the global replacement indicator g
appears after the command. If the global indicator does not appear,
only the first occurrence of the matched string is replaced. If a
number n, appears after the command, only the n-th occurrence of the
matched string on each addressed line is replaced. It is an error
if the substitution fails on all addressed lines. Any character
other than space or newline can be used instead of / to delimit the
regular expression and the replacement; the current line (.) is left
at the last line on which a substitution occurred. See also the
last paragraph of the DESCRIPTION section below.
An ampersand (&) appearing in the replacement is replaced by the
string matching the regular expression on the current line. The
special meaning of & in this context can be suppressed by preceding
it by \. As a more general feature, the characters \n, where n is a
digit, are replaced by the text matched by the n-th regular
subexpression of the specified regular expression enclosed between
\( and \). When nested parenthesized subexpressions are present, n
is determined by counting occurrences of \( starting from the left.
When the character % is the only character in the replacement, the
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replacement used in the most recent substitute command is used as
the replacement in the current substitute command. The % loses its
special meaning when it is in a replacement string of more than one
character or is preceded by a \.
A line can be split by substituting a newline character into it.
The newline in the replacement must be escaped by preceding it by \.
Such substitution cannot be done as part of a g or v command list.
(.,.)ta
This command acts just like the m command, except that a copy of the
addressed lines is placed after address a (which can be 0); the
current line (.) is left at the last line copied.
u
The undo command nullifies the effect of the most recent command
that modified anything in the buffer, namely the most recent a, c,
d, g, i, j, m, r, s, t, v, G, or V command.
(1,$)v/regular expression<b>/command list
This command is the same as the global command g, except that the
lines marked during the first step are those that do not match the
regular expression.
(1,$)V/regular expression<b>/
This command is the same as the interactive global command G, except
that the lines that are marked during the first step are those that
do not match the regular expression.
(1,$)w file
The write command writes the addressed lines into file. If file
does not exist, it is created with mode 666 (readable and writable
by everyone), unless your file creation mask dictates otherwise; see
the description of the umask special command on sh(1). The
currently remembered filename is not changed unless file is the very
first filename mentioned since ed was invoked. If no filename is
given, the currently remembered filename, if any, is used (see the e
and f commands); the current line (.) is unchanged. If the command
is successful, the number of characters written is printed. If file
is replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken to be a shell (see
sh(1)) command whose standard input is the addressed lines. Such a
shell command is not remembered as the current filename.
(1,$)W file
This command is the same as the write command above, except that it
appends the addressed lines to the end of file if it exists. If
file does not exist, it is created as described above for the w
command.
X
A key is prompted for, and it is used in subsequent e, r, and w
commands to decrypt and encrypt text using the crypt(1) algorithm.
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An educated guess is made to determine whether text read in for the
e and r commands is encrypted. A null key turns off encryption.
Subsequent e, r, and w commands use this key to encrypt or decrypt
the text (see crypt(1)). An explicitly empty key turns off
encryption. Also, see the -x option of ed.
($)=
The line number of the addressed line is typed; the current line (.)
is unchanged by this command.
!shell command
The remainder of the line after the ! is sent to the UNIX system
shell (see sh(1)) to be interpreted as a command. Within the text
of that command, the unescaped character % is replaced with the
remembered filename; if a ! appears as the first character of the
shell command, it is replaced with the text of the previous shell
command. Thus, !! repeats the last shell command. If any expansion
is performed, the expanded line is echoed; the current line (.) is
unchanged.
(.+1)<newline>
An address alone on a line causes the addressed line to be printed.
A newline alone is equivalent to .+1p; it is useful for stepping
forward through the buffer.
If an interrupt signal (ASCII DEL or BREAK) is sent, ed prints a ? and
returns to its command level.
Some size limitations: 512 bytes in a line, 256 bytes in a global
command list, and 1024 bytes in the pathname of a file (counting
slashes). The limit on the number of lines depends on the amount of user
memory: each line takes 1 word.
When reading a file, ed discards ASCII NUL characters.
If a file is not terminated by a newline character, ed adds one and puts
out a message explaining what it did.
If the closing delimiter of a regular expression or of a replacement
string (for example, /) would be the last character before a newline,
that delimiter can be omitted, in which case the addressed line is
printed. The following pairs of commands are equivalent:
s/s1/s2 s/s1/s2/p
g/s1 g/s1/p
?s1 ?s1?
$TMPDIR if this environmental variable is not null, its value is used
in place of /var/tmp as the directory name for the temporary
work file
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/var/tmp if /var/tmp exists, it is used as the directory name for the
temporary work file
/tmp if the environmental variable TMPDIR does not exist or is
null, and if /var/tmp does not exist, /tmp is used as the
directory name for the temporary work file
ed.hup work is saved here if the terminal is hung up
/usr/lib/locale/locale<b>/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore.abi
language-specific message file (see LANG in environ (5))
edit(1), ex(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1), stty(1), umask(1), vi(1),
fspec(4), regexp(5).
? Command errors. Type the h command for a short error message.
?file An inaccessible file. (Use the help and Help commands for
detailed explanations.)
If changes have been made in the buffer since the last w command that
wrote the entire buffer, ed warns the user if an attempt is made to
destroy ed's buffer via the e or q commands. It prints ? and allows one
to continue editing. A second e or q command at this point takes effect.
The -s command-line option inhibits this feature.
The - option, although it continues to be supported, has been replaced in
the documentation by the -s option that follows the Command Syntax
Standard (see intro(1)).
A ! command cannot be subject to a g or a v command.
The ! command and the ! escape from the e, r, and w commands cannot be
used if the editor is invoked from a restricted shell (see sh(1)).
The sequence \n in a regular expression does not match a newline
character.
If the editor input is coming from a command file (for example, ed file <b><
ed_cmd_file ), the editor exits at the first failure.
PPPPaaaaggggeeee 11112222 [ Back ]
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