Fundamentals of Linux

Working with sed

In this section, we will learn about the sed command, the powerful stream editor. We will give you a brief introduction on how sed works and we'll be showing you the substitution mode for automatically replacing text and files, which is one of the most important modes available. Next, we will learn about the sed command. Let's first examine its syntax:

sed [OPTION] 'pattern rule' FILE  

sed stands for stream editor and this command can edit files automatically without any user interaction. It processes input files on a line-by-line basis. Oftentimes, sed is used in shell scripts to transform any command's output to a desired form for further processing. Most everyday use cases for sed follow a similar pattern, which, in its ...