ed.1 (2010 09)

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ed(1) ed(1)

NAME

ed, red - line-oriented text editor

SYNOPSIS

ed [-p string ][-s

-][-x][ﬁle]

red [-p string ][-s

-][-x][ﬁle]

DESCRIPTION

The

ed command executes a line-oriented text editor. It is most commonly used in scripts and nonin-

teractive editing applications because, even though it can be used interactively, other editors such as

and ex are typically easier to use in an interactive environment.

If ﬁle is speciﬁed,

ed performs 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.

Options

The following options are recognized:

-p string Use string as the prompt string when in command mode. By default, there is no

prompt string.

-s- Suppress printing of byte counts by e, E, r, and

w commands, and suppress the !

prompt after a ! command . The - option is obsolescent and will be removed in a

future release.

-x Perform an X command ﬁrst to handle an encrypted ﬁle.

File Handling

ed operates on a copy of the ﬁle it is editing; changes made to the copy have no effect on the original 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.

red is a restricted version of ed that only allows editing of ﬁles in the current directory and prohibits

executing shell commands via !shell-command. Attempts to bypass these restrictions result in the error

message

restricted shell.

Both

ed and red support the fspec (4) formatting capability. After including a format speciﬁcation as the

ﬁrst line of ﬁle and invoking ed with the controlling terminal in stty -tabs

or stty tab3 mode (see

stty (1)), the speciﬁed tab stops are automatically used when scanning ﬁle. For example, if the ﬁrst line of

a ﬁle contained

<:t5,10,15 s72:>

the tab stops would be set at columns 5, 10, and 15, and a maximum line length of 72 would be imposed.

Note: When you input text,

ed expands tab characters as they are typed to every eighth column as a

default.

Editor Commands Structure

Commands to

ed have a simple and regular structure: zero, one, or two addresses followed by a single-

character command, 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 is allowed on a line. Append, change, and insert commands accept text

input which is then placed in the buffer as appropriate. While

ed is accepting text following an append,

change, or insert command, it is said to be in input mode. While in input mode, no editor commands are

recognized; all input is merely collected. To terminate input mode, type a period (.) alone at the begin-

ning of a line.

Regular Expressions

ed supports the Basic Regular Expression (RE) syntax (see regexp (5)), with the following additions:

• The null RE (for example,

//) is equivalent to the last RE encountered.

• If the closing delimiter of an RE or of a replacement string (for example,

/) would be the last

character before a newline, that delimiter can be omitted, in which case the addressed line is

printed. The following pairs of commands are equivalent:

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
ed(1) ed(1) NAME ed, red - line-oriented text editor SYNOPSIS ed [-p string ] [-s-] [-x] [file ] red [-p string ] [-s-] [-x] [file ] DESCRIPTION The ed command executes a line-oriented text editor. It is most commonly used in scripts and noninteractive editing applications because, even though it can be used interactively, other editors such as vi and ex are typically easier to use in an interactive environment.
PAGE 2
ed(1) ed(1) s/s1/s2 s/s1/s2/p g/s1 g/s1/p ?s1 ?s1? Line Addresses To understand line addressing, remember that ed maintains a pointer to the current line . Generally speaking, the current line is the last line affected by a command. The exact effect of a given command on the current line is discussed under the description of each command. Addresses are interpreted according to the following rules: A eA 1. The character . refers to the current line. 2.
PAGE 3
ed(1) (.)a text . (.,.)c text . ed(1) The a (append) command reads text and appends it after the addressed line. Upon completion, the new current line is the last inserted line, or, if no text was added, at the addressed line. Address 0 is legal for this command, causing the appended text to be placed at the beginning of the buffer. The c (change) command deletes the addressed lines then accepts input text to replace the deleted lines.
PAGE 4
ed(1) ed(1) (.)kx The k (mark) command marks the addressed line with the name x, which must be a lower-case letter. The address ’x then addresses this line. Upon completion, the new current line remains unchanged from before. (.,.)l The l (list) command writes the addressed lines to standard output in a visually unambiguous form. Characters listed in the following table are written as the corresponding escape sequence.
PAGE 5
ed(1) ed(1) below.) If an ampersand (&) appears in replacement , it is replaced by the string matching the RE on the current line. The special meaning of & in this context can be suppressed by preceding it with \. As a more general feature, the characters \n, where n is a digit, are replaced by the text matched by the nth regular subexpression of the specified RE enclosed between \( and \).
PAGE 6
ed(1) ed(1) !shell-command The remainder of the line after the ! is sent to the shell to be interpreted and executed as a command. Within the text of that command, the unescaped 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, !! repeats the last shell command. If any expansion is performed, the expanded line is echoed. Upon completion, the current line address is unchanged.
PAGE 7
ed(1) ed(1) WARNINGS ed(1) allows a Maximum Line Length of 4096 characters. Attempting to create lines longer than the allowable limit causes ed(1) to produce a Line too long error message. If a file contains lines longer than the specified limit (eg., 4096 characters), the longer lines will be truncated to the stated maximum length. Saving the file will write the truncated version over the original file, thus overwriting the original lines completely. A ! command cannot be subject to a g or a v command.
PAGE 8
(Notes) A (Notes) eA 8 Hewlett-Packard Company −1− HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010