ed(1)
NAME
ed, red - text editor
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/ed [-s | -] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
/usr/xpg4/bin/ed [-s | -] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
/usr/bin/red [-s | -] [-p string] [-x] [-C] [file]
DESCRIPTION
The ed utility is the standard text editor. If file is
specified, 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.
The ed utility operates on a copy of the file it is editing;
changes made to 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. There
is only one buffer.
The red utility is a restricted version of ed. It will only
allow editing of files in the current directory. It prohi-
bits executing shell commands via !shell command. Attempts
to bypass these restrictions result in an error message
(restricted shell).
Both ed and red support the fspec(4) formatting capability.
The default terminal mode is either stty -tabs or stty tab3,
where tab stops are set at eight columns (see stty(1)). If,
however, the first line of file contains a format specifica-
tion, that specification will override the default mode. For
example, if the first line of file contains
<:t5,10,15 s72:>
tab stops would be set at 5, 10, and 15, and a maximum line
length of 72 would be imposed.
Commands to ed have a simple and regular structure: zero,
one, or two addresses followed by a single-character com-
mand, possibly followed by parameters to that command. These
addresses specify one or more lines in the buffer. Every
command that requires addresses has default addresses, so
that the addresses can very often be omitted.
In general, only one command may appear on a line. Certain
commands allow the input of text. This text is placed in the
appropriate place in 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. Leave input
mode by typing a period (.) at the beginning of a line, fol-
lowed immediately by a carriage return.
/usr/bin/ed
If ed executes commands with arguments, it uses the default
shell /usr/bin/sh (see sh(1)).
/usr/xpg4/bin/ed
If ed executes commands with arguments, it uses
/usr/xpg4/bin/sh (see ksh(1)).
Regular Expressions
The ed utility supports a limited form of regular expression
notation. Regular expressions are used in addresses to
specify lines and in some commands (for example, s) to
specify portions of a line that are to be substituted. 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; the
exact effect on the current line is discussed under the
description of each command.
Internationalized Basic Regular Expressions are used for all
system-supplied locales. See regex(5).
ed Commands
Commands may require zero, one, or two addresses. Commands
that require no addresses regard the presence of an address
as an error. Commands that accept one or two addresses
assume default addresses when an insufficient number of
addresses is given; if more addresses are given than such a
command requires, the last one(s) are used.
Typically, addresses are separated from each other by a
comma (,). They may also be separated by a semicolon (;). In
the latter case, the first address is calculated, the
current line (.) is set to that value, and then the second
address is calculated. This feature can be used to determine
the starting line for forward and backward searches (see
Rules 5 and 6, above). The second address of any two-address
sequence must correspond to a line in the buffer that fol-
lows the line corresponding to the first address.
In the following list of ed commands, the parentheses shown
prior to the command are not part of the address; rather,
they show the default address(es) for the command.
Each address component can be preceded by zero or more blank
characters. The command letter can be preceded by zero or
more blank characters. If a suffix letter (l, n, or p) is
given, it must immediately follow the command.
The e, E, f, r, and w commands take an optional file parame-
ter, separated from the command letter by one or more blank
characters.
If changes have been made in the buffer since the last w
command that wrote the entire buffer, ed will warn the user
if an attempt is made to destroy the editor buffer via the e
or q commands. The ed utility will write the string:
"?\n"
(followed by an explanatory message if help mode has been
enabled via the H command) to standard output and will con-
tinue in command mode with the current line number
unchanged. If the e or q command is repeated with no inter-
vening command, it will take effect.
If an end-of-file is detected on standard input when a com-
mand is expected, the ed utility acts as if a q command had
been entered.
It is generally illegal for more than one command to appear
on a line. However, any command (except e, f, r, or w) may
be suffixed by l, n, or p in which case the current line is
either listed, numbered or written, respectively, as dis-
cussed below under the l, n, and p commands.
(.)a
<text>
. The append command accepts zero or more lines of text
and appends it after the addressed line in the buffer.
The current line (.) is left at the last inserted
line, or, if there were none, at the addressed line.
Address 0 is legal for this command: it causes the
``appended'' text to be placed at the beginning of the
buffer. The maximum number of characters that may be
entered from a terminal is 256 per line (including the
new-line character).
(.)c
<text>
. The change command deletes the addressed lines from
the buffer, then accepts zero or more lines of text
that replaces these lines in the buffer. The current
line (.) is left at the last line input, or, if there
were none, at the first line that was not deleted; if
the lines deleted were originally at the end of the
buffer, the current line number will be set to the
address of the new last line; if no lines remain in
the buffer, the current line number will be set to 0.
C Same as the X command, described later, except that ed
assumes all text read in for the e and r commands is
encrypted unless a null key is typed in.
(.,.)d
The delete command deletes the addressed lines from
the buffer. The line after the last line deleted
becomes the current line; if the lines deleted were
originally at the end of the buffer, the new last line
becomes the current line. If no lines remain in the
buffer, the current line number will be set to 0.
e file
The edit command deletes the entire contents of the
buffer and then reads the contents of file into the
buffer. The current line (.) is set to the last line
of the buffer. If file is not given, the currently
remembered file name, if any, is used (see the f com-
mand). The number of bytes read will be written to
standard output, unless the -s option was specified,
in the following format:
"%d\n" <number of bytes read>
file is remembered for possible use as a default file
name in subsequent e, E, r, and w commands. If file is
replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken to be a
shell ( sh(1)) command whose output is to be read.
Such a shell command is not remembered as the current
file name. See also DIAGNOSTICS below. All marks will
be discarded upon the completion of a successful e
command. If the buffer has changed since the last time
the entire buffer was written, the user will be
warned, as described previously.
E file
The Edit command is like e, except that the editor
does not check to see if any changes have been made to
the buffer since the last w command.
f file
If file is given, the f command will change the
currently remembered path name to file; whether the
name is changed or not, it then will write the (possi-
bly new) currently remembered path name to the stan-
dard output in the following format:
"%s\n"pathname
The current line number is unchanged.
(1,$)g/RE/command list
In the global command, the first step is to mark every
line that matches the given RE. Then, for every such
line, the given command list is executed with the
current line (.) initially set to that line. When the
g command completes, the current line number will have
the value assigned by the last command in the command
list. If there were no matching lines, the current
line number will not be changed. A single command or
the first of a list of commands appears on the same
line as the global command. All lines of a multi-line
list except the last line must be ended with a
backslash (\); a, i, and c commands and associated
input are permitted. The . terminating input mode may
be omitted if it would be the last line of the command
list. An empty command list is equivalent to the p
command. The g, G, v, V, and ! commands are not per-
mitted in the command list. See also the NOTES and the
last paragraph before FILES below. Any character other
than space or newline can be used instead of a slash
to delimit the RE. Within the RE, the RE delimiter
itself can be used as a literal character if it is
preceded by a backslash.
(1,$)G/RE/
In the interactive Global command, the first step is
to mark every line that matches the given RE. Then,
for every such line, that line is written to standard
output, the current line (.) is changed to that line,
and any one command (other than one of the a, c, i, g,
G, v, and V commands) may be input and is executed.
After the execution of that command, the next marked
line is written, and so on; a new-line acts as a null
command; an & causes the re-execution of the most
recent non-null command executed within the current
invocation of G. Note: The commands input as part of
the execution of the G command may address and affect
any lines in the buffer. The final value of the
current line number will be the value set by the last
command successfully executed. (Notice that the last
command successfully executed will be the G command
itself if a command fails or the null command is
specified.) If there were no matching lines, the
current line number will not be changed. The G command
can be terminated by a SIGINT signal. The G command
can be terminated by an interrupt signal (ASCII DEL or
BREAK). Any character other than space or newline can
be used instead of a slash to delimit the RE. Within
the RE, the RE delimiter itself can be used as a
literal character if it is preceded by a backslash.
h The help command gives a short error message that
explains the reason for the most recent ? diagnostic.
The current line number is unchanged.
H The Help command causes ed to enter a mode in which
error messages are written for all subsequent ? diag-
nostics. It will also explain the previous ? if there
was one. The H command alternately turns this mode on
and off; it is initially off. The current line number
is unchanged.
(.)i
<text>
. The insert command accepts zero or more lines of text
and inserts it before the addressed line in the
buffer. The current line (.) is left at the last
inserted line, or, if there were none, at the
addressed line. This command differs from the a com-
mand only in the placement of the input text. Address
0 is not legal for this command. The maximum number of
characters that may be entered from a terminal is 256
per line (including the new-line character).
(.,.+1)j
The join command joins contiguous lines by removing
the appropriate new-line characters. If exactly one
address is given, this command does nothing. If lines
are joined, the current line number will be set to the
address of the joined line. Otherwise, the current
line number is unchanged.
(.)kx The mark command marks the addressed line with name x,
which must be an ASCII lower-case letter (a-z). The
address 'x then addresses this line; the current line
(.) is unchanged.
(.,.)l
The l command writes to standard output the addressed
lines in a visually unambiguous form. The characters (
\\, \a, \b, \f, \r, \t, \v) will be written as the
corresponding escape sequence; the \n in that table is
not applicable. Non-printable characters not in the
table will be written as one three-digit octal number
(with a preceding backslash character) for each byte
in the character (most significant byte first).
Long lines will be folded, with the point of folding
indicated by writing backslash/newline character; the
length at which folding occurs is unspecified, but
should be appropriate for the output device. The end
of each line will be marked with a $. An l command can
be appended to any other command other than e, E, f,
q, Q, r, w, or !. The current line number will be set
to the address of the last line written.
(.,.)ma
The move command repositions the addressed line(s)
after the line addressed by a. Address 0 is legal for
a and causes the addressed line(s) to be moved to the
beginning of the file. It is an error if address a
falls within the range of moved lines; the current
line (.) is left at the last line moved.
(.,.)n
The number command writes the addressed lines, preced-
ing each line by its line number and a tab character;
the current line (.) is left at the last line written.
The n command may be appended to any command other
than e, E, f, q, Q, r, w, or !.
(.,.)p
The print command writes the addressed lines to stan-
dard output; the current line (.) is left at the last
line written. The p command may be appended to any
command other than e, E, f, q, Q, r, w, or !. For
example, dp deletes the current line and writes the
new current line.
P The P command causes ed to prompt with an asterisk (*)
(or string, if -p is specified) for all subsequent
commands. The P command alternatively turns this mode
on and off; it is initially on if the -p option is
specified, otherwise off. The current line is
unchanged.
q The quit command causes ed to exit. If the buffer has
changed since the last time the entire buffer was
written, the user will be warned. See DIAGNOSTICS.
Q The editor exits without checking if changes have been
made in the buffer since the last w command.
($)r file
The read command reads the contents of file into the
buffer. If file is not given, the currently remembered
file name, if any, is used (see the e and f commands).
The currently remembered file name is not changed
unless file is the very first file name mentioned
since ed was invoked. Address 0 is legal for r and
causes the file to be read in at the beginning of the
buffer. If the read is successful and the -s option
was not specified, the number of characters read is
written to standard output in the following format:
%d\n, <number of bytes read>
The current line (.) is set to the last line read. If
file is replaced by !, the rest of the line is taken
to be a shell command (see sh(1)) whose output is to
be read. For example, $r !ls appends the current
directory to the end of the file being edited. Such a
shell command is not remembered as the current file
name.
(.,.)s/RE/replacement/
(.,.)s/RE/replacement/count, count=[1-512]
(.,.)s/RE/replacement/g
(.,.)s/RE/replacement/l
(.,.)s/RE/replacement /n
(.,.)s/RE/replacement/p
The substitute command searches each addressed line
for an occurrence of the specified RE. Zero or more
substitution commands can be specified. In each line
in which a match is found, all (non-overlapped)
matched strings are replaced by the replacement if the
global replacement indicator g appears after the com-
mand. If the global indicator does not appear, only
the first occurrence of the matched string is
replaced. If a number count appears after the command,
only the count-th occurrence of the matched string on
each addressed line is replaced. It is an error if the
substitution fails on all addressed lines. Any char-
acter other than space or new-line may be used instead
of the slash (/) to delimit the RE and the replace-
ment; the current line (.) is left at the last line on
which a substitution occurred. Within the RE, the RE
delimiter itself can be used as a literal character if
it is preceded by a backslash. See also the last para-
graph before FILES below.
An ampersand (&) appearing in the replacement is
replaced by the string matching the RE on the current
line. The special meaning of & in this context may be
suppressed by preceding it by \. As a more general
feature, the characters \n, where n is a digit, are
replaced by the text matched by the n-th regular
subexpression of the specified RE enclosed between \(
and \). When nested parenthesized subexpressions are
present, n is determined by counting occurrences of \(
starting from the left. When the character % is the
only character in the replacement, the replacement
used in the most recent substitute command is used as
the replacement in the current substitute command; if
there was no previous substitute command, the use of %
in this manner is an error. The % loses its special
meaning when it is in a replacement string of more
than one character or is preceded by a \. For each
backslash (\) encountered in scanning replacement from
beginning to end, the following character loses its
special meaning (if any). It is unspecified what spe-
cial meaning is given to any character other than &,
\, %, or digits.
A line may be split by substituting a new-line charac-
ter into it. The new-line in the replacement must be
escaped by preceding it by \. Such substitution cannot
be done as part of a g or v command list. The current
line number will be set to the address of the last
line on which a substitution is performed. If no sub-
stitution is performed, the current line number is
unchanged. If a line is split, a substitution is con-
sidered to have been performed on each of the new
lines for the purpose of determining the new current
line number. A substitution is considered to have been
performed even if the replacement string is identical
to the string that it replaces.
The substitute command supports the following indica-
tors:
count Substitute for the countth occurrence only of
the RE found on each addressed line. count must
be between 1-512.
g Globally substitute for all non-overlapping
instances of the RE rather than just the first
one. If both g and count are specified, the
results are unspecified.
l Write to standard output the final line in which
a substitution was made. The line will be writ-
ten in the format specified for the l command.
n Write to standard output the final line in which
a substitution was made. The line will be writ-
ten in the format specified for the n command.
p Write to standard output the final line in which
a substitution was made. The line will be writ-
ten in the format specified for the p command.
(.,.)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); the current line (.) is left at
the last line copied.
u The undo command nullifies the effect of the most
recent command that modified anything in the buffer,
namely the most recent a, c, d, g, i, j, m, r, s, t,
u, v, G, or V command. All changes made to the buffer
by a g, G, v, or V global command will be undone as a
single change; if no changes were made by the global
command (such as with g/ RE /p), the u command will
have no effect. The current line number will be set
to the value it had immediately before the command
being undone started.
(1,$)v/RE/command list
This command is the same as the global command g,
except that the lines marked during the first step are
those that do not match the RE.
(1,$)V/RE/
This command is the same as the interactive global
command G, except that the lines that are marked dur-
ing the first step are those that do not match the RE.
(1,$)w file
The write command writes the addressed lines into
file. If file does not exist, it is created with mode
666 (readable and writable by everyone), unless your
file creation mask dictates otherwise; see the
description of the umask special command on sh(1). The
currently remembered file name is not changed unless
file is the very first file name mentioned since ed
was invoked. If no file name is given, the currently
remembered file name, if any, is used (see the e and f
commands); the current line (.) is unchanged. If the
command is successful, the number of characters writ-
ten is printed, unless the -s option is specified in
the following format:
"%d\n",<number of bytes written>
If file is replaced by !, the rest of the line is
taken to be a shell (see sh(1)) command whose standard
input is the addressed lines. Such a shell command is
not remembered as the current path name. This usage of
the write command with ! is to be considered as a
``last w command that wrote the entire buffer''.
(1,$)W file
This command is the same as the write command above,
except that it appends the addressed lines to the end
of file if it exists. If file does not exist, it is
created as described above for the w command.
X An educated guess is made to determine whether text
read for the e and r commands is encrypted. A null
key turns off encryption. Subsequent e, r, and w com-
mands will use this key to encrypt or decrypt the
text. An explicitly empty key turns off encryption.
Also, see the -x option of ed.
($)= The line number of the addressed line will be written
to standard output in the following format:
"%d\n"<line number>
The current line number is unchanged by this command.
!shell command
The remainder of the line after the ! is sent to the
UNIX system shell (see sh(1)) to be interpreted as a
command. Within the text of that command, the unes-
caped character % is replaced with the remembered file
name; if a ! appears as the first character of the
shell command, it is replaced with the text of the
previous shell command. Thus, !! will repeat the last
shell command. If any replacements of % or ! are per-
formed, the modified line will be written to the stan-
dard output before command is executed. The ! command
will write:
"!\n"
to standard output upon completion, unless the -s
option is specified. The current line number is
unchanged.
(.+1)<new-line>
An address alone on a line causes the addressed line
to be written. A new-line alone is equivalent to .+1p;
it is useful for stepping forward through the buffer.
The current line number will be set to the address of
the written line.
If an interrupt signal (ASCII DEL or BREAK) is sent, ed
writes a "?\n" and returns to its command level.
The ed utility will take the standard action for all signals
with the following exceptions:
SIGINT
The ed utility will interrupt its current activity,
write the string "?\n" to standard output, and return
to command mode.
SIGHUP
If the buffer is not empty and has changed since the
last write, the ed utility will attempt to write a
copy of the buffer in a file. First, the file named
ed.hup in the current directory will be used; if that
fails, the file named ed.hup in the directory named by
the HOME environment variable will be used. In any
case, the ed utility will exit without returning to
command mode.
Some size limitations are in effect: 512 characters in a
line, 256 characters in a global command list, and 255 char-
acters in the path name of a file (counting slashes). The
limit on the number of lines depends on the amount of user
memory; each line takes 1 word.
When reading a file, ed discards ASCII and NUL characters.
If a file is not terminated by a new-line character, ed adds
one and puts out a message explaining what it did.
If the closing delimiter of an RE or of a replacement string
(for example, /) would be the last character before a new-
line, that delimiter may be omitted, in which case the
addressed line is written. The following pairs of commands
are equivalent:
s/s1/s2
s/s1/s2/p
g/s1 g/s1/p
?s1 ?s1?
If an invalid command is entered, ed will write the string:
"?\n"
(followed by an explanatory message if help mode has been
enabled by the H command) to standard output and will con-
tinue in command mode with the current line number
unchanged.
OPTIONS
-C Encryption option; the same as the -x option, except
that ed simulates a C command. The C command is like
the X command, except that all text read in is assumed
to have been encrypted.
-p string
Allows the user to specify a prompt string. By
default, there is no prompt string.
-s | -;
Suppresses the writing of character counts by e, r,
and w commands, of diagnostics from e and q commands,
and of the ! prompt after a !shell command.
-x Encryption option; when used, ed simulates an X com-
mand and prompts the user for a key. The X command
makes an educated guess to determine whether text read
in is encrypted or not. The temporary buffer file is
encrypted also, using a transformed version of the key
typed in for the -x option. See NOTES.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
file If file is specified, ed simulates an e command on the
file named by the path name file before accepting com-
mands from the standard input.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of ed
and red when encountering files greater than or equal to 2
Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of ed: HOME, LANG,
LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_COLLATE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion without any file or command
errors.
>0 An error occurred.
FILES
$TMPDIR
If this environment variable is not NULL, its value is
used in place of /var/tmp as the directory name for
the temporary work file.
/var/tmp
If /var/tmp exists, it is used as the directory name
for the temporary work file.
/tmp If the environment variable TMPDIR does not exist or
is NULL, and if /var/tmp does not exist, then /tmp is
used as the directory name for the temporary work
file.
ed.hup
Work is saved here if the terminal is hung up.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
/usr/bin/ed, /usr/bin/red
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcsu |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| CSI | Enabled |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
/usr/xpg4/bin/ed
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWxcu4 |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| CSI | Enabled |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Standard |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
bfs(1), edit(1), ex(1), grep(1), ksh(1), sed(1), sh(1),
stty(1), umask(1), vi(1), fspec(4), attributes(5), environ(
5), largefile(5), regex(5), standards(5)
DIAGNOSTICS
? for command errors.
?file for an inaccessible file. (use the help and Help com-
mands for detailed explanations).
If changes have been made in the buffer since the last w
command that wrote the entire buffer, ed warns the user if
an attempt is made to destroy ed's buffer via the e or q
commands. It writes ? and allows one to continue editing. A
second e or q command at this point will take effect. The -s
command-line option inhibits this feature.
NOTES
The - option, although it continues to be supported, has
been replaced in the documentation by the -s option that
follows the Command Syntax Standard (see intro(1)).
A ! command cannot be subject to a g or a v command.
The ! command and the ! escape from the e, r, and w commands
cannot be used if the editor is invoked from a restricted
shell (see sh(1)).
The sequence \n in an RE does not match a new-line charac-
ter.
If the editor input is coming from a command file (for exam-
ple, ed file < ed_cmd_file), the editor exits at the first
failure.
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