ED(1) User Commands 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/xpg6/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, 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. red prohibits 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(5) 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 specification, that specification will
override the default mode. For example, tab stops would be set at 5,
10, and 15, and a maximum line length of 72 would be imposed if the
first line of file contains

<:t5,10,15 s72:>


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 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, followed immediately by a carriage return.


If ed executes commands with arguments, it uses the default shell
/usr/bin/sh (see sh(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(7).

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 follows the
line corresponding to the first address.


For /usr/xpg6/bin/ed, the address can be omitted on either side of
the comma or semicolon separator, in which case the resulting address
pairs are as follows:


+----------+-------------+
|Specified | Resulting |
+----------+-------------+
|, | 1 , $ |
+----------+-------------+
|, addr | 1 , addr |
+----------+-------------+
|addr , | addr , addr |
+----------+-------------+
|; | 1 ; $ |
+----------+-------------+
|; addr | 1 ; addr |
+----------+-------------+
|addr ; | addr ; addr |
+----------+-------------+


Any <blank>s included between addresses, address separators, or
address offsets are ignored.


In the following list of ed commands, the parentheses shown prior to
the command are not part of the address. Rather, the parentheses 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 parameter,
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 warns the user if an attempt is made to
destroy the editor buffer via the e or q commands. The ed utility
writes the string:

"?\n"


(followed by an explanatory message if help mode has been enabled via
the H command) to standard output and continues in command mode with
the current line number unchanged. If the e or q command is repeated
with no intervening command, ed takes effect.


If an end-of-file is detected on standard input when a command 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 discussed 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.

/usr/xpg4/bin/ed
Address 0 is not legal for this
command.


/usr/xpg6/bin/ed
Address 0 is valid for this command.
It is interpreted as if the address 1
were specified.


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 command). 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 are 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 is 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 changes the currently
remembered path name to file. Whether the name is changed
or not, the f command then writes the (possibly new)
currently remembered path name to the standard 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 has the value assigned by the last
command in the command list. If there were
no matching lines, the current line number
is not 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 permitted 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 is the value set by
the last command successfully executed.
(Notice that the last command successfully
executed is the G command itself if a
command fails or the null command is
specified.) If there were no matching
lines, the current line number is not
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 ? diagnostics. It also explains
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
command only in the placement of the input
text. The maximum number of characters that
may be entered from a terminal is 256 per
line (including the new-line character).

/usr/xpg4/bin/ed
Address 0 is not legal
for this command.


/usr/xpg6/bin/ed
Address 0 is valid for
this command. It is
interpreted as if the
address 1 were
specified.


(.,.+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 is 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 a'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) are written as the corresponding
escape sequence. The \n in that table is
not applicable. Non-printable characters
not in the table are written as one three-
digit octal number (with a preceding
backslash character) for each byte in the
character, with the most significant byte
first.

Long lines are 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 is marked with
a $. When using the /usr/xpg6/bin/ed
command, the end of each line is marked
with a $ due to folding, and $ characters
within the text are written with a
preceding backslash. An l command can be
appended to any other command other than e,
E, f, q, Q, r, w, or !. The current line
number is 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, preceding 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 standard 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 is
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=[1-2047]
(.,.)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 command. 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
character other than space or new-line may be used instead of the
slash (/) to delimit the RE and the replacement. 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
paragraph 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 special meaning is given
to any character other than &, \, %, or digits.

A line may be split by substituting a new-line character 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 is set to the address of
the last line on which a substitution is performed. If no
substitution is performed, the current line number is unchanged.
If a line is split, a substitution is considered 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 indicators:

count
Substitute for the countth occurrence only of the RE
found on each addressed line. count must be between
1-2047.


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 is written in the format
specified for the l command.


n
Write to standard output the final line in which a
substitution was made. The line is written 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 written 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 is undone as
a single change.If no changes were made by the global command
(such as with g/ RE/p), the u command has no effect. The current
line number is 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 during 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
written 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 commands 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 is 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 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 replacements of % or ! are performed, the
modified line is written to the standard 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 takes the standard action for all signals with the
following exceptions:

SIGINT
The ed utility interrupts its current activity, writes the
string "?\n" to standard output, and returns to command
mode.


SIGHUP
If the buffer is not empty and has changed since the last
write, the ed utility attempts to write a copy of the
buffer in a file. First, the file named ed.hup in the
current directory is used. If that fails, the file named
ed.hup in the directory named by the HOME environment
variable is used. In any case, the ed utility exits 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 characters 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 writes the string:


"?\n"


(followed by an explanatory message if help mode has been enabled by
the H command) to standard output and continues 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.


-pstring
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 -x is used, ed simulates an X
command 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 commands from
the standard input.

USAGE

See largefile(7) 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(7) 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(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:

/usr/bin/ed, /usr/bin/red

+---------------+-----------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+-----------------+
|CSI | Enabled |
+---------------+-----------------+

/usr/xpg4/bin/ed

+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|CSI | Enabled |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Standard |
+--------------------+-----------------+

/usr/xpg6/bin/ed

+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|CSI | Enabled |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Standard |
+--------------------+-----------------+

SEE ALSO

edit(1), ex(1), grep(1), ksh(1), sed(1), sh(1), stty(1), umask(1),
vi(1), fspec(5), attributes(7), environ(7), largefile(7), regex(7),
standards(7)

DIAGNOSTICS

?
for command errors.


?file
for an inaccessible file. Use the help and Help commands 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 character.


If the editor input is coming from a command file (for example, ed
file < ed_cmd_file), the editor exits at the first failure.


Loading an alternate malloc() library using the environment variable
LD_PRELOAD can cause problems for /usr/bin/ed.

August 13, 2023 ED(1)