ed(1) ed(1)
NAME
ed, red - text editor
SYNOPSIS
ed [-s] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
red [-s] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
DESCRIPTION
ed is the standard text editor. 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 on 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, 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
may 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 NOTICES section at
the end of this manual 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.
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red is a restricted version of ed. It will only allow 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 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 the specified tab stops will automatically be
used when scanning file. For example, if the first line of a
file contained:
<:t5,10,15 s72:>
tab stops would be set at columns 5, 10, and 15, and a maximum
line length of 72 would be imposed. NOTE: 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 may 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. [See
grep(1) for complete regular expression information.]
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
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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.
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 -, then 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
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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 may 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 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.
The file arguments of the e, E, f, r, w, and W commands are
subject to pattern matching as in sh(1), They should be
separated from the command letter by one or more spaces or
tabs.
It is generally illegal for more than one command to appear on
a line. However, any command (except e, f, r, or w) may 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,
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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 may be entered from a
terminal is {LINE_MAX} per line (including the new-line
character). {LINE_MAX} is defined in limits.h.
(.)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 file name, 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 file
name in subsequent e, r, and w commands. If file is
replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken to be a
shell [sh(1)] command whose output is to be read in.
Such a shell command is not remembered as the current
file name. See also DIAGNOSTICS below.
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.
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f file
If file is given, the file-name command changes the
currently remembered file name to file; otherwise, it
prints the currently remembered file name.
(1,$)g/regular expression/command list
In the global command, the first step is to mark every
line that matches the given regular expression. Then,
for every such line, the given command list is executed
with the current line (.) initially set to that line. A
single command or the first of a list of commands
appears on the same line as the global command. All
lines of a multi-line list except the last line must be
ended with a \; a, i, and c commands and associated
input are permitted. The . terminating input mode may
be omitted if it would be the last line of the command
list. An empty command list is equivalent to the p
command. The g, G, v, and V commands are not permitted
in the command list. See the NOTICES section and the
last paragraph of the DESCRIPTION section below.
(1,$)G/regular expression/
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) may be input and is executed.
After the execution of that command, the next marked
line is printed, and so on; a new-line 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 may 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 will also explain the previous ? if
there was one. The H command alternately turns this
mode on and off; it is initially off.
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(.)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 may be
entered from a terminal is {LINE_MAX} per line
(including the new-line character). {LINE_MAX} is
defined in limits.h.
(.,.+1)j
The join command joins contiguous lines by removing the
appropriate new-line 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 non-printing characters
are printed in octal, long lines are folded and the end
of each line is marked with a $. An l command may be
appended to any command other than e, f, r, or w.
(.,.)ma
The move command repositions the addressed line(s) after
the line addressed by a. Address 0 is legal for a and
causes the addressed line(s) to be moved to the
beginning of the file. It is an error if address a
falls within the range of moved lines; the current line
(.) is left at the last line moved.
(.,.)n
The number command prints the addressed lines, preceding
each line by its line number and a tab character; the
current line (.) is left at the last line printed. The
n command may be appended to any command other than e,
f, r, or w.
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(.,.)p
The print command prints the addressed lines; the
current line (.) is left at the last line printed. The
p command may be appended to any command other than e,
f, r, or w. For example, dp deletes the current line
and prints the new current line.
P The editor will prompt with a * for all subsequent
commands. The P command alternately turns this mode on
and off; it is initially off.
q The quit command causes ed to exit. No automatic write
of a file is done; however, see DIAGNOSTICS below.
Q The editor exits without checking if changes have been
made in the buffer since the last w command.
($)r file
The read command reads the contents of file into the
buffer. If file is not given, the currently remembered
file name, if any, is used (see the e and f commands).
The currently remembered file name is not changed unless
file is the very first file name 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 file name.
(.,.)s/regular expression/replacement/ or
(.,.)s/regular expression/replacement/g or
(.,.)s/regular expression/replacement/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
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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 new-line may 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 may 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 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 may be split by substituting a new-line character
into it. The new-line 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 may 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,$)v/regular expression/command list
This command is the same as the global command g, except
that the lines marked during the first step are those
that do not match the regular expression.
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(1,$)V/regular expression/
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,$)w file
The write command writes the addressed lines into file.
If file does not exist, it is created with mode 666
(readable and writable by everyone), unless your file
creation mask dictates otherwise; see the description of
the umask special command on sh(1). The currently
remembered file name is not changed unless file is the
very first file name mentioned since ed was invoked. If
no file name is given, the currently remembered file
name, if any, is used (see the e and f commands); the
current line (.) is unchanged. If the command is
successful, the number of characters written is printed.
If file is replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken
to be a shell command whose standard input is the
addressed lines. Such a shell command is not remembered
as the current file name.
(1,$)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. 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 will 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 to be interpreted as a command. See
sh(1). Within the text of that command, the unescaped
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character % is replaced with the remembered file name;
if a ! appears as the first character of the shell
command, it is replaced with the text of the previous
shell command. Thus, !! will repeat the last shell
command. If any expansion is performed, the expanded
line is echoed; the current line (.) is unchanged.
(.+1)<new-line>
An address alone on a line causes the addressed line to
be printed. A new-line 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: {LINE_MAX} bytes in a line, 256 bytes
in a global command list, and {PATH_MAX} bytes in the pathname
of a file (counting slashes). {LINE_MAX} and {PATH_MAX} are
defined in limits.h. 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 new-line 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 new-line, that delimiter may 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?
Errors
? for command errors.
?file for 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
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second e or q command at this point will take effect. The -s
command-line option inhibits this feature.
Files
$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.
/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, then /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/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore.abi
language-specific message file [see LANG on
environ(5)].
REFERENCES
edit(1), ex(1), fspec(4), grep(1), regexp(5), sed(1), sh(1),
stty(1), umask(1), vi(1)
NOTICES
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].
The encryption options and commands are provided with the
Encryption Utilities package, which is available only in the
United States.
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 new-
line character.
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If the editor input is coming from a command file (for
example, ed file < ed_cmd_file), the editor exits at the first
failure.
The following environment variables affect the execution of
ed: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME, TZ [see LANG
on environ(5)].
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