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SED(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SED(1P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The
Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
sed -- stream editor
SYNOPSIS
sed [-n] script [file...]
sed [-n] -e script [-e script]... [-f script_file]... [file...]
sed [-n] [-e script]... -f script_file [-f script_file]... [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The sed utility is a stream editor that shall read one or more
text files, make editing changes according to a script of editing
commands, and write the results to standard output. The script
shall be obtained from either the script operand string or a
combination of the option-arguments from the -e script and -f
script_file options.
OPTIONS
The sed utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1-2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except
that the order of presentation of the -e and -f options is
significant.
The following options shall be supported:
-e script Add the editing commands specified by the script
option-argument to the end of the script of editing
commands.
-f script_file
Add the editing commands in the file script_file to the
end of the script of editing commands.
-n Suppress the default output (in which each line, after
it is examined for editing, is written to standard
output). Only lines explicitly selected for output are
written.
If any -e or -f options are specified, the script of editing
commands shall initially be empty. The commands specified by each
-e or -f option shall be added to the script in the order
specified. When each addition is made, if the previous addition
(if any) was from a -e option, a <newline> shall be inserted
before the new addition. The resulting script shall have the same
properties as the script operand, described in the OPERANDS
section.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
file A pathname of a file whose contents are read and
edited. If multiple file operands are specified, the
named files shall be read in the order specified and
the concatenation shall be edited. If no file operands
are specified, the standard input shall be used.
script A string to be used as the script of editing commands.
The application shall not present a script that
violates the restrictions of a text file except that
the final character need not be a <newline>.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used if no file operands are
specified, and shall be used if a file operand is '-' and the
implementation treats the '-' as meaning standard input.
Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used. See the INPUT
FILES section.
INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files. The script_files named by
the -f option shall consist of editing commands.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
sed:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, Section 8.2,
Internationalization Variables for the precedence of
internationalization variables used to determine the
values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
of all the other internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges,
equivalence classes, and multi-character collating
elements within regular expressions.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for
example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte
characters in arguments and input files), and the
behavior of character classes within regular
expressions.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the
processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The input files shall be written to standard output, with the
editing commands specified in the script applied. If the -n
option is specified, only those input lines selected by the
script shall be written to standard output.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic and warning
messages.
OUTPUT FILES
The output files shall be text files whose formats are dependent
on the editing commands given.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The script shall consist of editing commands of the following
form:
[address[,address]]function
where function represents a single-character command verb from
the list in Editing Commands in sed, followed by any applicable
arguments.
The command can be preceded by <blank> characters and/or
<semicolon> characters. The function can be preceded by <blank>
characters. These optional characters shall have no effect.
In default operation, sed cyclically shall append a line of
input, less its terminating <newline> character, into the pattern
space. Reading from input shall be skipped if a <newline> was in
the pattern space prior to a D command ending the previous cycle.
The sed utility shall then apply in sequence all commands whose
addresses select that pattern space, until a command starts the
next cycle or quits. If no commands explicitly started a new
cycle, then at the end of the script the pattern space shall be
copied to standard output (except when -n is specified) and the
pattern space shall be deleted. Whenever the pattern space is
written to standard output or a named file, sed shall immediately
follow it with a <newline>.
Some of the editing commands use a hold space to save all or part
of the pattern space for subsequent retrieval. The pattern and
hold spaces shall each be able to hold at least 8192 bytes.
Addresses in sed
An address is either a decimal number that counts input lines
cumulatively across files, a '