Description: Emily Alison Reese, Dotcom
What is sed? sed - a Stream EDitor sed is a UNIX utility which processes a text file one line at a time. It has RegularExpression based string manipulation, a hold buffer, and some basic flow control. Amazing things can be done with these BearSkinsAndStoneKnives . — WikiWikiWeb: Sed Language Yes, I guess sed is a stone knife or bear-skin, in that it's one of those ancient 1 Unix utilities with a reputation for being powerful in the right context, but a bit difficult to wield. Whether or not the reputation i
My main use case for sed is when I find myself thinking, "Gee, I just need to run a regular expression over this file or bunch of text."
In addition to replacing, it can delete certain text or lines, or insert blank lines. The way sed changes files is called non-interactive editing: all change instructions are defined up front, and then applies them to the input, line by line.