Syntax of sed Commands
sed commands have the general form:
[address[,address]][!]command [arguments]
sed commands consist of addresses and editing commands. commands consist of a single letter or symbol; they are described later, alphabetically and by group. arguments include the label supplied to b or t, the filename supplied to r or w, and the substitution flags for s. addresses are described in the next section.
Pattern Addressing
A sed command can specify zero, one, or two addresses. An address can be a line number, the symbol $ (for last line), or a regular expression enclosed in slashes (/ pattern /). Regular expressions are described in Chapter 9. Additionally, \n can be used to match any newline in the pattern space (resulting from the N command) but not the newline at the end of the pattern space.
If the Command Specifies | Then the Command Is Applied To |
---|---|
No address | Each input line. |
One address |
Any line matching the address. Some commands (a, i, r, q, and =) accept only one address. |
Two comma-separated addresses |
First matching line and all succeeding lines up to and including a line matching the second address. |
An address followed by ! |
All lines that do not match the address. |
Examples
s/xx/yy/g Substitute on all lines (all occurrences) /BSD/d Delete lines containing BSD /^BEGIN/,/^END/p Print between BEGIN and END, inclusive /SAVE/!d Delete any line that doesn't contain SAVE /BEGIN/,/END/!s/xx/yy/g Substitute on all lines, except between BEGIN and END
Braces ({}) are used ...
Get Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.