Mastering Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

Multiple sed commands

In all the previous examples, we only applied one sed command to our stream. What about running multiple sed commands?

You can do that by using the -e option and separating the commands with a semicolon like this:

$ sed -e 's/First/XFirst/; s/Second/XSecond/' myfile

Also, you can enter every command on a separate line and you will achieve the same result:

$ sed -e '
> s/First/XFirst/
> s/Second/XSecond/' myfile  

The sed command offers great flexibility; if you use it well, you will gain a lot of power.