1 http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/sed1line.txt
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3 HANDY ONE-LINERS FOR SED (Unix stream editor) Apr. 26, 2004
4 compiled by Eric Pement - pemente[at]northpark[dot]edu version 5.4
5 Latest version of this file is usually at:
6 http://sed.sourceforge.net/sed1line.txt
7 http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/sed1line.txt
8 This file is also available in Portuguese at:
9 http://www.lrv.ufsc.br/wmaker/sed_ptBR.html
16 # double space a file which already has blank lines in it. Output file
17 # should contain no more than one blank line between lines of text.
23 # undo double-spacing (assumes even-numbered lines are always blank)
26 # insert a blank line above every line which matches "regex"
29 # insert a blank line below every line which matches "regex"
32 # insert a blank line above and below every line which matches "regex"
33 sed '/regex/{x;p;x;G;}'
37 # number each line of a file (simple left alignment). Using a tab (see
38 # note on '\t' at end of file) instead of space will preserve margins.
39 sed = filename | sed 'N;s/\n/\t/'
41 # number each line of a file (number on left, right-aligned)
42 sed = filename | sed 'N; s/^/ /; s/ *\(.\{6,\}\)\n/\1 /'
44 # number each line of file, but only print numbers if line is not blank
45 sed '/./=' filename | sed '/./N; s/\n/ /'
47 # count lines (emulates "wc -l")
50 TEXT CONVERSION AND SUBSTITUTION:
52 # IN UNIX ENVIRONMENT: convert DOS newlines (CR/LF) to Unix format
53 sed 's/.$//' # assumes that all lines end with CR/LF
54 sed 's/^M$//' # in bash/tcsh, press Ctrl-V then Ctrl-M
55 sed 's/\x0D$//' # gsed 3.02.80, but top script is easier
57 # IN UNIX ENVIRONMENT: convert Unix newlines (LF) to DOS format
58 sed "s/$/`echo -e \\\r`/" # command line under ksh
59 sed 's/$'"/`echo \\\r`/" # command line under bash
60 sed "s/$/`echo \\\r`/" # command line under zsh
61 sed 's/$/\r/' # gsed 3.02.80
63 # IN DOS ENVIRONMENT: convert Unix newlines (LF) to DOS format
64 sed "s/$//" # method 1
67 # IN DOS ENVIRONMENT: convert DOS newlines (CR/LF) to Unix format
68 # Can only be done with UnxUtils sed, version 4.0.7 or higher.
69 # Cannot be done with other DOS versions of sed. Use "tr" instead.
70 sed "s/\r//" infile >outfile # UnxUtils sed v4.0.7 or higher
71 tr -d \r <infile >outfile # GNU tr version 1.22 or higher
73 # delete leading whitespace (spaces, tabs) from front of each line
74 # aligns all text flush left
75 sed 's/^[ \t]*//' # see note on '\t' at end of file
77 # delete trailing whitespace (spaces, tabs) from end of each line
78 sed 's/[ \t]*$//' # see note on '\t' at end of file
80 # delete BOTH leading and trailing whitespace from each line
81 sed 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
83 # insert 5 blank spaces at beginning of each line (make page offset)
86 # align all text flush right on a 79-column width
87 sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,78\}$/ &/;ta' # set at 78 plus 1 space
89 # center all text in the middle of 79-column width. In method 1,
90 # spaces at the beginning of the line are significant, and trailing
91 # spaces are appended at the end of the line. In method 2, spaces at
92 # the beginning of the line are discarded in centering the line, and
93 # no trailing spaces appear at the end of lines.
94 sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,77\}$/ & /;ta' # method 1
95 sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,77\}$/ &/;ta' -e 's/\( *\)\1/\1/' # method 2
97 # substitute (find and replace) "foo" with "bar" on each line
98 sed 's/foo/bar/' # replaces only 1st instance in a line
99 sed 's/foo/bar/4' # replaces only 4th instance in a line
100 sed 's/foo/bar/g' # replaces ALL instances in a line
101 sed 's/\(.*\)foo\(.*foo\)/\1bar\2/' # replace the next-to-last case
102 sed 's/\(.*\)foo/\1bar/' # replace only the last case
104 # substitute "foo" with "bar" ONLY for lines which contain "baz"
105 sed '/baz/s/foo/bar/g'
107 # substitute "foo" with "bar" EXCEPT for lines which contain "baz"
108 sed '/baz/!s/foo/bar/g'
110 # change "scarlet" or "ruby" or "puce" to "red"
111 sed 's/scarlet/red/g;s/ruby/red/g;s/puce/red/g' # most seds
112 gsed 's/scarlet\|ruby\|puce/red/g' # GNU sed only
114 # reverse order of lines (emulates "tac")
115 # bug/feature in HHsed v1.5 causes blank lines to be deleted
116 sed '1!G;h;$!d' # method 1
117 sed -n '1!G;h;$p' # method 2
119 # reverse each character on the line (emulates "rev")
120 sed '/\n/!G;s/\(.\)\(.*\n\)/&\2\1/;//D;s/.//'
122 # join pairs of lines side-by-side (like "paste")
125 # if a line ends with a backslash, append the next line to it
126 sed -e :a -e '/\\$/N; s/\\\n//; ta'
128 # if a line begins with an equal sign, append it to the previous line
129 # and replace the "=" with a single space
130 sed -e :a -e '$!N;s/\n=/ /;ta' -e 'P;D'
132 # add commas to numeric strings, changing "1234567" to "1,234,567"
133 gsed ':a;s/\B[0-9]\{3\}\>/,&/;ta' # GNU sed
134 sed -e :a -e 's/\(.*[0-9]\)\([0-9]\{3\}\)/\1,\2/;ta' # other seds
136 # add commas to numbers with decimal points and minus signs (GNU sed)
137 gsed ':a;s/\(^\|[^0-9.]\)\([0-9]\+\)\([0-9]\{3\}\)/\1\2,\3/g;ta'
139 # add a blank line every 5 lines (after lines 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.)
140 gsed '0~5G' # GNU sed only
141 sed 'n;n;n;n;G;' # other seds
143 SELECTIVE PRINTING OF CERTAIN LINES:
145 # print first 10 lines of file (emulates behavior of "head")
148 # print first line of file (emulates "head -1")
151 # print the last 10 lines of a file (emulates "tail")
152 sed -e :a -e '$q;N;11,$D;ba'
154 # print the last 2 lines of a file (emulates "tail -2")
157 # print the last line of a file (emulates "tail -1")
159 sed -n '$p' # method 2
161 # print only lines which match regular expression (emulates "grep")
162 sed -n '/regexp/p' # method 1
163 sed '/regexp/!d' # method 2
165 # print only lines which do NOT match regexp (emulates "grep -v")
166 sed -n '/regexp/!p' # method 1, corresponds to above
167 sed '/regexp/d' # method 2, simpler syntax
169 # print the line immediately before a regexp, but not the line
170 # containing the regexp
171 sed -n '/regexp/{g;1!p;};h'
173 # print the line immediately after a regexp, but not the line
174 # containing the regexp
175 sed -n '/regexp/{n;p;}'
177 # print 1 line of context before and after regexp, with line number
178 # indicating where the regexp occurred (similar to "grep -A1 -B1")
179 sed -n -e '/regexp/{=;x;1!p;g;$!N;p;D;}' -e h
181 # grep for AAA and BBB and CCC (in any order)
182 sed '/AAA/!d; /BBB/!d; /CCC/!d'
184 # grep for AAA and BBB and CCC (in that order)
185 sed '/AAA.*BBB.*CCC/!d'
187 # grep for AAA or BBB or CCC (emulates "egrep")
188 sed -e '/AAA/b' -e '/BBB/b' -e '/CCC/b' -e d # most seds
189 gsed '/AAA\|BBB\|CCC/!d' # GNU sed only
191 # print paragraph if it contains AAA (blank lines separate paragraphs)
192 # HHsed v1.5 must insert a 'G;' after 'x;' in the next 3 scripts below
193 sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e 'x;/AAA/!d;'
195 # print paragraph if it contains AAA and BBB and CCC (in any order)
196 sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e 'x;/AAA/!d;/BBB/!d;/CCC/!d'
198 # print paragraph if it contains AAA or BBB or CCC
199 sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e 'x;/AAA/b' -e '/BBB/b' -e '/CCC/b' -e d
200 gsed '/./{H;$!d;};x;/AAA\|BBB\|CCC/b;d' # GNU sed only
202 # print only lines of 65 characters or longer
205 # print only lines of less than 65 characters
206 sed -n '/^.\{65\}/!p' # method 1, corresponds to above
207 sed '/^.\{65\}/d' # method 2, simpler syntax
209 # print section of file from regular expression to end of file
212 # print section of file based on line numbers (lines 8-12, inclusive)
213 sed -n '8,12p' # method 1
214 sed '8,12!d' # method 2
216 # print line number 52
217 sed -n '52p' # method 1
218 sed '52!d' # method 2
219 sed '52q;d' # method 3, efficient on large files
221 # beginning at line 3, print every 7th line
222 gsed -n '3~7p' # GNU sed only
223 sed -n '3,${p;n;n;n;n;n;n;}' # other seds
225 # print section of file between two regular expressions (inclusive)
226 sed -n '/Iowa/,/Montana/p' # case sensitive
228 SELECTIVE DELETION OF CERTAIN LINES:
230 # print all of file EXCEPT section between 2 regular expressions
231 sed '/Iowa/,/Montana/d'
233 # delete duplicate, consecutive lines from a file (emulates "uniq").
234 # First line in a set of duplicate lines is kept, rest are deleted.
235 sed '$!N; /^\(.*\)\n\1$/!P; D'
237 # delete duplicate, nonconsecutive lines from a file. Beware not to
238 # overflow the buffer size of the hold space, or else use GNU sed.
239 sed -n 'G; s/\n/&&/; /^\([ -~]*\n\).*\n\1/d; s/\n//; h; P'
241 # delete all lines except duplicate lines (emulates "uniq -d").
242 sed '$!N; s/^\(.*\)\n\1$/\1/; t; D'
244 # delete the first 10 lines of a file
247 # delete the last line of a file
250 # delete the last 2 lines of a file
253 # delete the last 10 lines of a file
254 sed -e :a -e '$d;N;2,10ba' -e 'P;D' # method 1
255 sed -n -e :a -e '1,10!{P;N;D;};N;ba' # method 2
257 # delete every 8th line
258 gsed '0~8d' # GNU sed only
259 sed 'n;n;n;n;n;n;n;d;' # other seds
261 # delete ALL blank lines from a file (same as "grep '.' ")
262 sed '/^$/d' # method 1
263 sed '/./!d' # method 2
265 # delete all CONSECUTIVE blank lines from file except the first; also
266 # deletes all blank lines from top and end of file (emulates "cat -s")
267 sed '/./,/^$/!d' # method 1, allows 0 blanks at top, 1 at EOF
268 sed '/^$/N;/\n$/D' # method 2, allows 1 blank at top, 0 at EOF
270 # delete all CONSECUTIVE blank lines from file except the first 2:
271 sed '/^$/N;/\n$/N;//D'
273 # delete all leading blank lines at top of file
276 # delete all trailing blank lines at end of file
277 sed -e :a -e '/^\n*$/{$d;N;ba' -e '}' # works on all seds
278 sed -e :a -e '/^\n*$/N;/\n$/ba' # ditto, except for gsed 3.02*
280 # delete the last line of each paragraph
281 sed -n '/^$/{p;h;};/./{x;/./p;}'
283 SPECIAL APPLICATIONS:
285 # remove nroff overstrikes (char, backspace) from man pages. The 'echo'
286 # command may need an -e switch if you use Unix System V or bash shell.
287 sed "s/.`echo \\\b`//g" # double quotes required for Unix environment
288 sed 's/.^H//g' # in bash/tcsh, press Ctrl-V and then Ctrl-H
289 sed 's/.\x08//g' # hex expression for sed v1.5
291 # get Usenet/e-mail message header
292 sed '/^$/q' # deletes everything after first blank line
294 # get Usenet/e-mail message body
295 sed '1,/^$/d' # deletes everything up to first blank line
297 # get Subject header, but remove initial "Subject: " portion
298 sed '/^Subject: */!d; s///;q'
300 # get return address header
301 sed '/^Reply-To:/q; /^From:/h; /./d;g;q'
303 # parse out the address proper. Pulls out the e-mail address by itself
304 # from the 1-line return address header (see preceding script)
305 sed 's/ *(.*)//; s/>.*//; s/.*[:<] *//'
307 # add a leading angle bracket and space to each line (quote a message)
310 # delete leading angle bracket & space from each line (unquote a message)
313 # remove most HTML tags (accommodates multiple-line tags)
314 sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba'
316 # extract multi-part uuencoded binaries, removing extraneous header
317 # info, so that only the uuencoded portion remains. Files passed to
318 # sed must be passed in the proper order. Version 1 can be entered
319 # from the command line; version 2 can be made into an executable
320 # Unix shell script. (Modified from a script by Rahul Dhesi.)
321 sed '/^end/,/^begin/d' file1 file2 ... fileX | uudecode # vers. 1
322 sed '/^end/,/^begin/d' "$@" | uudecode # vers. 2
324 # zip up each .TXT file individually, deleting the source file and
325 # setting the name of each .ZIP file to the basename of the .TXT file
326 # (under DOS: the "dir /b" switch returns bare filenames in all caps).
327 echo @echo off >zipup.bat
328 dir /b *.txt | sed "s/^\(.*\)\.TXT/pkzip -mo \1 \1.TXT/" >>zipup.bat
330 TYPICAL USE: Sed takes one or more editing commands and applies all of
331 them, in sequence, to each line of input. After all the commands have
332 been applied to the first input line, that line is output and a second
333 input line is taken for processing, and the cycle repeats. The
334 preceding examples assume that input comes from the standard input
335 device (i.e, the console, normally this will be piped input). One or
336 more filenames can be appended to the command line if the input does
337 not come from stdin. Output is sent to stdout (the screen). Thus:
339 cat filename | sed '10q' # uses piped input
340 sed '10q' filename # same effect, avoids a useless "cat"
341 sed '10q' filename > newfile # redirects output to disk
343 For additional syntax instructions, including the way to apply editing
344 commands from a disk file instead of the command line, consult "sed &
345 awk, 2nd Edition," by Dale Dougherty and Arnold Robbins (O'Reilly,
346 1997; http://www.ora.com), "UNIX Text Processing," by Dale Dougherty
347 and Tim O'Reilly (Hayden Books, 1987) or the tutorials by Mike Arst
348 distributed in U-SEDIT2.ZIP (many sites). To fully exploit the power
349 of sed, one must understand "regular expressions." For this, see
350 "Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey Friedl (O'Reilly, 1997).
351 The manual ("man") pages on Unix systems may be helpful (try "man
352 sed", "man regexp", or the subsection on regular expressions in "man
353 ed"), but man pages are notoriously difficult. They are not written to
354 teach sed use or regexps to first-time users, but as a reference text
355 for those already acquainted with these tools.
357 QUOTING SYNTAX: The preceding examples use single quotes ('...')
358 instead of double quotes ("...") to enclose editing commands, since
359 sed is typically used on a Unix platform. Single quotes prevent the
360 Unix shell from intrepreting the dollar sign ($) and backquotes
361 (`...`), which are expanded by the shell if they are enclosed in
362 double quotes. Users of the "csh" shell and derivatives will also need
363 to quote the exclamation mark (!) with the backslash (i.e., \!) to
364 properly run the examples listed above, even within single quotes.
365 Versions of sed written for DOS invariably require double quotes
366 ("...") instead of single quotes to enclose editing commands.
368 USE OF '\t' IN SED SCRIPTS: For clarity in documentation, we have used
369 the expression '\t' to indicate a tab character (0x09) in the scripts.
370 However, most versions of sed do not recognize the '\t' abbreviation,
371 so when typing these scripts from the command line, you should press
372 the TAB key instead. '\t' is supported as a regular expression
373 metacharacter in awk, perl, and HHsed, sedmod, and GNU sed v3.02.80.
375 VERSIONS OF SED: Versions of sed do differ, and some slight syntax
376 variation is to be expected. In particular, most do not support the
377 use of labels (:name) or branch instructions (b,t) within editing
378 commands, except at the end of those commands. We have used the syntax
379 which will be portable to most users of sed, even though the popular
380 GNU versions of sed allow a more succinct syntax. When the reader sees
381 a fairly long command such as this:
383 sed -e '/AAA/b' -e '/BBB/b' -e '/CCC/b' -e d
385 it is heartening to know that GNU sed will let you reduce it to:
387 sed '/AAA/b;/BBB/b;/CCC/b;d' # or even
388 sed '/AAA\|BBB\|CCC/b;d'
390 In addition, remember that while many versions of sed accept a command
391 like "/one/ s/RE1/RE2/", some do NOT allow "/one/! s/RE1/RE2/", which
392 contains space before the 's'. Omit the space when typing the command.
394 OPTIMIZING FOR SPEED: If execution speed needs to be increased (due to
395 large input files or slow processors or hard disks), substitution will
396 be executed more quickly if the "find" expression is specified before
397 giving the "s/.../.../" instruction. Thus:
399 sed 's/foo/bar/g' filename # standard replace command
400 sed '/foo/ s/foo/bar/g' filename # executes more quickly
401 sed '/foo/ s//bar/g' filename # shorthand sed syntax
403 On line selection or deletion in which you only need to output lines
404 from the first part of the file, a "quit" command (q) in the script
405 will drastically reduce processing time for large files. Thus:
407 sed -n '45,50p' filename # print line nos. 45-50 of a file
408 sed -n '51q;45,50p' filename # same, but executes much faster
410 If you have any additional scripts to contribute or if you find errors
411 in this document, please send e-mail to the compiler. Indicate the
412 version of sed you used, the operating system it was compiled for, and
413 the nature of the problem. Various scripts in this file were written
416 Al Aab <af137@freenet.toronto.on.ca> # "seders" list moderator
417 Edgar Allen <era@sky.net> # various
418 Yiorgos Adamopoulos <adamo@softlab.ece.ntua.gr>
419 Dale Dougherty <dale@songline.com> # author of "sed & awk"
420 Carlos Duarte <cdua@algos.inesc.pt> # author of "do it with sed"
421 Eric Pement <pemente@northpark.edu> # author of this document
422 Ken Pizzini <ken@halcyon.com> # author of GNU sed v3.02
423 S.G. Ravenhall <stew.ravenhall@totalise.co.uk> # great de-html script
424 Greg Ubben <gsu@romulus.ncsc.mil> # many contributions & much help
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