NAME
psed - a stream editor
SYNOPSIS
psed [-an] script [file ...]
psed [-an] [-e script] [-f script-file] [file ...]
s2p [-an] [-e script] [-f script-file]
DESCRIPTION
A stream editor reads the input stream consisting of the specified
files (or standard input, if none are given), processes is line by line
by applying a script consisting of edit commands, and writes resulting
lines to standard output. The filename ‘"-"’ may be used to read
standard input.
The edit script is composed from arguments of -e options and script-
files, in the given order. A single script argument may be specified as
the first parameter.
If this program is invoked with the name s2p, it will act as a sed-to-
Perl translator. See "sed Script Translation".
sed returns an exit code of 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
OPTIONS
-a A file specified as argument to the w edit command is by default
opened before input processing starts. Using -a, opening of such
files is delayed until the first line is actually written to the
file.
-e script
The editing commands defined by script are appended to the script.
Multiple commands must be separated by newlines.
-f script-file
Editing commands from the specified script-file are read and
appended to the script.
-n By default, a line is written to standard output after the editing
script has been applied to it. The -n option suppresses automatic
printing.
COMMANDS
sed command syntax is defined as
[address[,address]][!]function[argument]
with whitespace being permitted before or after addresses, and between
the function character and the argument. The addresses and the address
inverter ("!") are used to restrict the application of a command to the
selected line(s) of input.
Each command must be on a line of its own, except where noted in the
synopses below.
The edit cycle performed on each input line consist of reading the line
(without its trailing newline character) into the pattern space,
applying the applicable commands of the edit script, writing the final
contents of the pattern space and a newline to the standard output. A
hold space is provided for saving the contents of the pattern space for
later use.
Addresses
A sed address is either a line number or a pattern, which may be
combined arbitrarily to construct ranges. Lines are numbered across all
input files.
Any address may be followed by an exclamation mark (‘"!"’), selecting
all lines not matching that address.
number
The line with the given number is selected.
$ A dollar sign ("$") is the line number of the last line of the
input stream.
/regular expression/
A pattern address is a basic regular expression (see "Basic Regular
Expressions"), between the delimiting character "/". Any other
character except "\" or newline may be used to delimit a pattern
address when the initial delimiter is prefixed with a backslash
(‘"\"’).
If no address is given, the command selects every line.
If one address is given, it selects the line (or lines) matching the
address.
Two addresses select a range that begins whenever the first address
matches, and ends (including that line) when the second address
matches. If the first (second) address is a matching pattern, the
second address is not applied to the very same line to determine the
end of the range. Likewise, if the second address is a matching
pattern, the first address is not applied to the very same line to
determine the begin of another range. If both addresses are line
numbers, and the second line number is less than the first line number,
then only the first line is selected.
Functions
The maximum permitted number of addresses is indicated with each
function synopsis below.
The argument text consists of one or more lines following the command.
Embedded newlines in text must be preceded with a backslash. Other
backslashes in text are deleted and the following character is taken
literally.
[1addr]a\ text
Write text (which must start on the line following the command) to
standard output immediately before reading the next line of input,
either by executing the N function or by beginning a new cycle.
[2addr]b [label]
Branch to the : function with the specified label. If no label is
given, branch to the end of the script.
[2addr]c\ text
The line, or range of lines, selected by the address is deleted.
The text (which must start on the line following the command) is
written to standard output. With an address range, this occurs at
the end of the range.
[2addr]d
Deletes the pattern space and starts the next cycle.
[2addr]D
Deletes the pattern space through the first embedded newline or to
the end. If the pattern space becomes empty, a new cycle is
started, otherwise execution of the script is restarted.
[2addr]g
Replace the contents of the pattern space with the hold space.
[2addr]G
Append a newline and the contents of the hold space to the pattern
space.
[2addr]h
Replace the contents of the hold space with the pattern space.
[2addr]H
Append a newline and the contents of the pattern space to the hold
space.
[1addr]i\ text
Write the text (which must start on the line following the command)
to standard output.
[2addr]l
Print the contents of the pattern space: non-printable characters
are shown in C-style escaped form; long lines are split and have a
trailing ‘"\"’ at the point of the split; the true end of a line is
marked with a ‘"$"’. Escapes are: ‘\a’, ‘\t’, ‘\n’, ‘\f’, ‘\r’,
‘\e’ for BEL, HT, LF, FF, CR, ESC, respectively, and ‘\’ followed
by a three-digit octal number for all other non-printable
characters.
[2addr]n
If automatic printing is enabled, write the pattern space to the
standard output. Replace the pattern space with the next line of
input. If there is no more input, processing is terminated.
[2addr]N
Append a newline and the next line of input to the pattern space.
If there is no more input, processing is terminated.
[2addr]p
Print the pattern space to the standard output. (Use the -n option
to suppress automatic printing at the end of a cycle if you want to
avoid double printing of lines.)
[2addr]P
Prints the pattern space through the first embedded newline or to
the end.
[1addr]q
Branch to the end of the script and quit without starting a new
cycle.
[1addr]r file
Copy the contents of the file to standard output immediately before
the next attempt to read a line of input. Any error encountered
while reading file is silently ignored.
[2addr]s/regular expression/replacement/flags
Substitute the replacement string for the first substring in the
pattern space that matches the regular expression. Any character
other than backslash or newline can be used instead of a slash to
delimit the regular expression and the replacement. To use the
delimiter as a literal character within the regular expression and
the replacement, precede the character by a backslash (‘"\"’).
Literal newlines may be embedded in the replacement string by
preceding a newline with a backslash.
Within the replacement, an ampersand (‘"&"’) is replaced by the
string matching the regular expression. The strings ‘"\1"’ through
‘"\9"’ are replaced by the corresponding subpattern (see "Basic
Regular Expressions"). To get a literal ‘"&"’ or ‘"\"’ in the
replacement text, precede it by a backslash.
The following flags modify the behaviour of the s command:
g The replacement is performed for all matching, non-
overlapping substrings of the pattern space.
1..9 Replace only the n-th matching substring of the pattern
space.
p If the substitution was made, print the new value of the
pattern space.
w file If the substitution was made, write the new value of the
pattern space to the specified file.
[2addr]t [label]
Branch to the : function with the specified label if any s
substitutions have been made since the most recent reading of an
input line or execution of a t function. If no label is given,
branch to the end of the script.
[2addr]w file
The contents of the pattern space are written to the file.
[2addr]x
Swap the contents of the pattern space and the hold space.
[2addr]y/string1/string2/
In the pattern space, replace all characters occuring in string1 by
the character at the corresponding position in string2. It is
possible to use any character (other than a backslash or newline)
instead of a slash to delimit the strings. Within string1 and
string2, a backslash followed by any character other than a newline
is that literal character, and a backslash followed by an ‘n’ is
replaced by a newline character.
[1addr]=
Prints the current line number on the standard output.
[0addr]: [label]
The command specifies the position of the label. It has no other
effect.
[2addr]{ [command]
[0addr]}
These two commands begin and end a command list. The first command
may be given on the same line as the opening { command. The
commands within the list are jointly selected by the address(es)
given on the { command (but may still have individual addresses).
[0addr]# [comment]
The entire line is ignored (treated as a comment). If, however, the
first two characters in the script are ‘"#n"’, automatic printing
of output is suppressed, as if the -n option were given on the
command line.
BASIC REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
A Basic Regular Expression (BRE), as defined in POSIX 1003.2, consists
of atoms, for matching parts of a string, and bounds, specifying
repetitions of a preceding atom.
Atoms
The possible atoms of a BRE are: ., matching any single character; ^
and $, matching the null string at the beginning or end of a string,
respectively; a bracket expressions, enclosed in [ and ] (see below);
and any single character with no other significance (matching that
character). A \ before one of: ., ^, $, [, *, \, matching the character
after the backslash. A sequence of atoms enclosed in \( and \) becomes
an atom and establishes the target for a backreference, consisting of
the substring that actually matches the enclosed atoms. Finally, \
followed by one of the digits 0 through 9 is a backreference.
A ^ that is not first, or a $ that is not last does not have a special
significance and need not be preceded by a backslash to become literal.
The same is true for a ], that does not terminate a bracket expression.
An unescaped backslash cannot be last in a BRE.
Bounds
The BRE bounds are: *, specifying 0 or more matches of the preceding
atom; \{count\}, specifying that many repetitions; \{minimum,\}, giving
a lower limit; and \{minimum,maximum\} finally defines a lower and
upper bound.
A bound appearing as the first item in a BRE is taken literally.
Bracket Expressions
A bracket expression is a list of characters, character ranges and
character classes enclosed in [ and ] and matches any single character
from the represented set of characters.
A character range is written as two characters separated by - and
represents all characters (according to the character collating
sequence) that are not less than the first and not greater than the
second. (Ranges are very collating-sequence-dependent, and portable
programs should avoid relying on them.)
A character class is one of the class names
alnum digit punct
alpha graph space
blank lower upper
cntrl print xdigit
enclosed in [: and :] and represents the set of characters as defined
in ctype(3).
If the first character after [ is ^, the sense of matching is inverted.
To include a literal ‘"^"’, place it anywhere else but first. To
include a literal ’"]"’ place it first or immediately after an initial
^. To include a literal ‘"-"’ make it the first (or second after ^) or
last character, or the second endpoint of a range.
The special bracket expression constructs "[[:<:]]" and "[[:>:]]" match
the null string at the beginning and end of a word respectively. (Note
that neither is identical to Perl’s ‘\b’ atom.)
Additional Atoms
Since some sed implementations provide additional regular expression
atoms (not defined in POSIX 1003.2), psed is capable of translating the
following backslash escapes:
\< This is the same as "[[:>:]]".
\> This is the same as "[[:<:]]".
\w This is an abbreviation for "[[:alnum:]_]".
\W This is an abbreviation for "[^[:alnum:]_]".
\y Match the empty string at a word boundary.
\B Match the empty string between any two either word or non-word
characters.
To enable this feature, the environment variable PSEDEXTBRE must be set
to a string containing the requested characters, e.g.:
"PSEDEXTBRE='<>wW'".
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable "PSEDEXTBRE" may be set to extend BREs. See
"Additional Atoms".
DIAGNOSTICS
ambiguous translation for character ‘%s’ in ‘y’ command
The indicated character appears twice, with different translations.
‘[’ cannot be last in pattern
A ‘[’ in a BRE indicates the beginning of a bracket expression.
‘\’ cannot be last in pattern
A ‘\’ in a BRE is used to make the subsequent character literal.
‘\’ cannot be last in substitution
A ‘\’ in a subsitution string is used to make the subsequent
character literal.
conflicting flags ‘%s’
In an s command, either the ‘g’ flag and an n-th occurrence flag,
or multiple n-th occurrence flags are specified. Note that only the
digits ‘1’ through ‘9’ are permitted.
duplicate label %s (first defined at %s)
excess address(es)
The command has more than the permitted number of addresses.
extra characters after command (%s)
illegal option ‘%s’
improper delimiter in s command
The BRE and substitution may not be delimited with ‘\’ or newline.
invalid address after ‘,’
invalid backreference (%s)
The specified backreference number exceeds the number of
backreferences in the BRE.
invalid repeat clause ‘\{%s\}’
The repeat clause does not contain a valid integer value, or pair
of values.
malformed regex, 1st address
malformed regex, 2nd address
malformed regular expression
malformed substitution expression
malformed ‘y’ command argument
The first or second string of a y command is syntactically
incorrect.
maximum less than minimum in ‘\{%s\}’
no script command given
There must be at least one -e or one -f option specifying a script
or script file.
‘\’ not valid as delimiter in ‘y’ command
option -e requires an argument
option -f requires an argument
‘s’ command requires argument
start of unterminated ‘{’
string lengths in ‘y’ command differ
The translation table strings in a y command must have equal
lengths.
undefined label ‘%s’
unexpected ‘}’
A } command without a preceding { command was encountered.
unexpected end of script
The end of the script was reached although a text line after a a, c
or i command indicated another line.
unknown command ‘%s’
unterminated ‘[’
A BRE contains an unterminated bracket expression.
unterminated ‘\(’
A BRE contains an unterminated backreference.
‘\{’ without closing ‘\}’
A BRE contains an unterminated bounds specification.
‘\)’ without preceding ‘\(’
‘y’ command requires argument
EXAMPLE
The basic material for the preceding section was generated by running
the sed script
#no autoprint
s/^.*Warn( *"\([^"]*\)".*$/\1/
t process
b
:process
s/$!/%s/g
s/$[_[:alnum:]]\{1,\}/%s/g
s/\\\\/\\/g
s/^/=item /
p
on the program’s own text, and piping the output into "sort -u".
SED SCRIPT TRANSLATION
If this program is invoked with the name s2p it will act as a sed-to-
Perl translator. After option processing (all other arguments are
ignored), a Perl program is printed on standard output, which will
process the input stream (as read from all arguments) in the way
defined by the sed script and the option setting used for the
translation.
SEE ALSO
perl(1), re_format(7)
BUGS
The l command will show escape characters (ESC) as ‘"\e"’, but a
vertical tab (VT) in octal.
Trailing spaces are truncated from labels in :, t and b commands.
The meaning of an empty regular expression (‘"//"’), as defined by sed,
is "the last pattern used, at run time". This deviates from the Perl
interpretation, which will re-use the "last last successfully executed
regular expression". Since keeping track of pattern usage would create
terribly cluttered code, and differences would only appear in obscure
context (where other sed implementations appear to deviate, too), the
Perl semantics was adopted. Note that common usage of this feature,
such as in "/abc/s//xyz/", will work as expected.
Collating elements (of bracket expressions in BREs) are not
implemented.
STANDARDS
This sed implementation conforms to the IEEE Std1003.2-1992 ("POSIX.2")
definition of sed, and is compatible with the OpenBSD implementation,
except where otherwise noted (see "BUGS").
AUTHOR
This Perl implementation of sed was written by Wolfgang Laun,
Wolfgang.Laun@alcatel.at.
COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
This program is free and open software. You may use, modify,
distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any
way you wish, provided you do not restrict others from doing the same.