ED(1) ED(1)
NAME
ed - text editor
SYNOPSIS
ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]
DESCRIPTION
Ed is the standard text editor.
If a name 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. If -x is
present, an x command is simulated first to handle an
encrypted file. The optional - suppresses the printing of
character counts by e, r, and w commands.
Ed operates on a copy of any file it is editing; changes
made in 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.
Commands to ed have a simple and regular structure: zero
or more addresses followed by a single character command,
possibly followed by parameters to the command. These
addresses specify one or more lines in the buffer. Miss-
ing addresses are supplied by default.
In general, only one command may appear on a line. Cer-
tain commands allow the addition of text to 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. Input mode is left by typing a
period `.' alone at the beginning of a line.
Ed supports a limited form of regular expression notation.
A regular expression specifies a set of strings of charac-
ters. A member of this set of strings is said to be
matched by the regular expression. In the following spec-
ification for regular expressions the word `character'
means any character but newline.
1. Any character except a special character matches
itself. Special characters are the regular expres-
sion delimiter plus \[. and sometimes ^*$.
2. A . matches any character.
3. A \ followed by any character except a digit or ()
matches that character.
4. A nonempty string s bracketed [s] (or [^s]) matches
any character in (or not in) s. In s, \ has no
special meaning, and ] may only appear as the first
letter. A substring a-b, with a and b in ascending
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ED(1) ED(1)
ASCII order, stands for the inclusive range of
ASCII characters.
5. A regular expression of form 1-4 followed by *
matches a sequence of 0 or more matches of the reg-
ular expression.
6. A regular expression, x, of form 1-8, bracketed
\(x\) matches what x matches.
7. A \ followed by a digit n matches a copy of the
string that the bracketed regular expression begin-
ning with the nth \( matched.
8. A regular expression of form 1-8, x, followed by a
regular expression of form 1-7, y matches a match
for x followed by a match for y, with the x match
being as long as possible while still permitting a
y match.
9. A regular expression of form 1-8 preceded by ^ (or
followed by $), is constrained to matches that
begin at the left (or end at the right) end of a
line.
10. A regular expression of form 1-9 picks out the
longest among the leftmost matches in a line.
11. An empty regular expression stands for a copy of
the last regular expression encountered.
Regular expressions are used in addresses to specify lines
and in one command (see s below) to specify a portion of a
line which is to be replaced. If it is desired to use one
of the regular expression metacharacters as an ordinary
character, that character may be preceded by `\'. This
also applies to the character bounding the regular expres-
sion (often `/') and to `\' itself.
To understand addressing in ed it is necessary to know
that at any time there is a current line. Generally
speaking, the current line is the last line affected by a
command; however, the exact effect on the current line is
discussed under the description of the command. Addresses
are constructed as follows.
1. The character `.' addresses the current line.
2. The character `$' addresses the last line of the
buffer.
3. A decimal number n addresses the n-th line of the
buffer.
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ED(1) ED(1)
4. `'x' addresses the line marked with the name x,
which must be a lower-case letter. Lines are
marked with the k command described below.
5. A regular expression enclosed in slashes `/'
addresses the line found by searching forward from
the current line and stopping at the first line
containing a string that matches the regular
expression. If necessary the search wraps around
to the beginning of the buffer.
6. A regular expression enclosed in queries `?'
addresses the line found by searching backward from
the current line and stopping at the first line
containing a string that matches the regular
expression. If necessary the search wraps around
to the end of the buffer.
7. An address followed by a plus sign `+' or a minus
sign `-' followed by a decimal number specifies
that address plus (resp. minus) the indicated num-
ber of lines. The plus sign may be omitted.
8. If an address begins with `+' or `-' the addition
or subtraction is taken with respect to the current
line; e.g. `-5' is understood to mean `.-5'.
9. If an address ends with `+' or `-', then 1 is added
(resp. subtracted). As a consequence of this rule
and rule 8, the address `-' refers to the line
before the current line. Moreover, trailing `+'
and `-' characters have cumulative effect, so `--'
refers to the current line less 2.
10. To maintain compatibility with earlier versions of
the editor, the character `^' in addresses is
equivalent to `-'.
Commands may require zero, one, or two addresses. Com-
mands which require no addresses regard the presence of an
address as an error. Commands which accept one or two
addresses assume default addresses when insufficient are
given. If more addresses are given than such a command
requires, the last one or two (depending on what is
accepted) are used.
Addresses are separated from each other typically by a
comma `,'. They may also be separated by a semicolon `;'.
In this case the current line `.' is set to the previous
address before the next address is interpreted. This fea-
ture can be used to determine the starting line for for-
ward and backward searches (`/', `?'). The second address
of any two-address sequence must correspond to a line fol-
lowing the line corresponding to the first address.
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ED(1) ED(1)
In the following list of ed commands, the default
addresses are shown in parentheses. The parentheses are
not part of the address, but are used to show that the
given addresses are the default.
As mentioned, it is generally illegal for more than one
command to appear on a line. However, most commands may
be suffixed by `p' or by `l', in which case the current
line is either printed or listed respectively in the way
discussed below.
(.)a
<text>
.
The append command reads the given text and appends
it after the addressed line. `.' is left on the last
line input, if there were any, otherwise at the
addressed line. Address `0' is legal for this com-
mand; text is placed at the beginning of the buffer.
(., .)c
<text>
.
The change command deletes the addressed lines, then
accepts input text which replaces these lines. `.'
is left at the last line input; if there were none,
it is left at the line preceding the deleted lines.
(., .)d
The delete command deletes the addressed lines from
the buffer. The line originally after the last line
deleted becomes the current line; if the lines
deleted were originally at the end, the new last line
becomes the current line.
e filename
The edit command causes the entire contents of the
buffer to be deleted, and then the named file to be
read in. `.' is set to the last line of the buffer.
The number of characters read is typed. `filename'
is remembered for possible use as a default file name
in a subsequent r or w command. If `filename' is
missing, the remembered name is used.
E filename
This command is the same as e, except that no diag-
nostic results when no w has been given since the
last buffer alteration.
f filename
The filename command prints the currently remembered
file name. If `filename' is given, the currently
remembered file name is changed to `filename'.
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ED(1) ED(1)
(1,$)g/regular expression/command list
In the global command, the first step is to mark
every line which matches the given regular expres-
sion. Then for every such line, the given command
list is executed with `.' initially set to that line.
A single command or the first of multiple commands
appears on the same line with the global command.
All lines of a multi-line list except the last line
must be ended with `\'. A, i, and c commands and
associated input are permitted; the `.' terminating
input mode may be omitted if it would be on the last
line of the command list. The commands g and v are
not permitted in the command list.
(.)i
<text>
.
This command inserts the given text before the
addressed line. `.' is left at the last line input,
or, if there were none, at the line before the
addressed line. This command differs from the a com-
mand only in the placement of the text.
(., .+1)j
This command joins the addressed lines into a single
line; intermediate newlines simply disappear. `.' is
left at the resulting line.
( . )kx
The mark command marks the addressed line with name
x, which must be a lower-case letter. The address
form `'x' then addresses this line.
(., .)l
The list command prints the addressed lines in an
unambiguous way: non-graphic characters are printed
in two-digit octal, and long lines are folded. The l
command may be placed on the same line after any non-
i/o command.
(., .)ma
The move command repositions the addressed lines
after the line addressed by a. The last of the moved
lines becomes the current line.
(., .)p
The print command prints the addressed lines. `.'
is left at the last line printed. The p command may
be placed on the same line after any non-i/o command.
(., .)P
This command is a synonym for p.
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q The quit command causes ed to exit. No automatic
write of a file is done.
Q This command is the same as q, except that no diag-
nostic results when no w has been given since the
last buffer alteration.
($)r filename
The read command reads in the given file after the
addressed line. If no file name is given, the remem-
bered file name, if any, is used (see e and f
commands). The file name is remembered if there was
no remembered file name already. Address `0' is
legal for r and causes the file to be read at the
beginning of the buffer. If the read is successful,
the number of characters read is typed. `.' is left
at the last line read in from the file.
( ., .)s/regular expression/replacement/ or,
( ., .)s/regular expression/replacement/g
The substitute command searches each addressed line
for an occurrence of the specified regular expres-
sion. On each line in which a match is found, all
matched strings are replaced by the replacement spec-
ified, 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. It is an error for the
substitution to fail 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. `.' is left at the last line sub-
stituted.
An ampersand `&' appearing in the replacement is
replaced by the string matching the regular expres-
sion. The special meaning of `&' in this context may
be suppressed by preceding it by `\'. The characters
`\n' where n is a digit, are replaced by the text
matched by the n-th regular subexpression enclosed
between `\(' and `\)'. When nested, parenthesized
subexpressions are present, n is determined by count-
ing occurrences of `\(' starting from the left.
Lines may be split by substituting new-line charac-
ters into them. The new-line in the replacement
string must be escaped by preceding it by `\'.
(., .)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). `.' is left on the last
line of the copy.
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ED(1) ED(1)
(., .)u
The undo command restores the preceding contents of
the current line, which must be the last line in
which a substitution was made.
(1, $)v/regular expression/command list
This command is the same as the global command g
except that the command list is executed g with `.'
initially set to every line except those matching the
regular expression.
(1, $)w filename
The write command writes the addressed lines onto the
given file. If the file does not exist, it is cre-
ated mode 666 (readable and writable by everyone).
The file name is remembered if there was no remem-
bered file name already. If no file name is given,
the remembered file name, if any, is used (see e and
f commands). `.' is unchanged. If the command is
successful, the number of characters written is
printed.
(1,$)W filename
This command is the same as w, except that the
addressed lines are appended to the file.
x A key string is demanded from the standard input.
Later r, e and w commands will encrypt and decrypt
the text with this key by the algorithm of crypt(1).
An explicitly empty key turns off encryption.
($)= The line number of the addressed line is typed. `.'
is unchanged by this command.
!<shell command>
The remainder of the line after the `!' is sent to
sh(1) to be interpreted as a command. `.' is
unchanged.
(.+1)<newline>
An address alone on a line causes the addressed line
to be printed. A blank line alone is equivalent to
`.+1p'; it is useful for stepping through text.
If an interrupt signal (ASCII DEL) is sent, ed prints a
`?' and returns to its command level.
Some size limitations: 512 characters per line, 256 char-
acters per global command list, 64 characters per file
name, and 128K characters in the temporary file. The
limit on the number of lines depends on the amount of
core: each line takes 1 word.
When reading a file, ed discards ASCII NUL characters and
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all characters after the last newline. It refuses to read
files containing non-ASCII characters.
FILES
/tmp/e*
ed.hup: work is saved here if terminal hangs up
SEE ALSO
B. W. Kernighan, A Tutorial Introduction to the ED Text
Editor
B. W. Kernighan, Advanced editing on UNIX
sed(1), crypt(1)
DIAGNOSTICS
`?name' for inaccessible file; `?' for errors in commands;
`?TMP' for temporary file overflow.
To protect against throwing away valuable work, a q or e
command is considered to be in error, unless a w has
occurred since the last buffer change. A second q or e
will be obeyed regardless.
BUGS
The l command mishandles DEL.
A ! command cannot be subject to a g command.
Because 0 is an illegal address for a w command, it is not
possible to create an empty file with ed.
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