How do remove identical lines in one file from another, using sed?

Question

I have two files, one being a superset of the other. I want to remove the identical lines in the smaller files from the larger file.

One possible complication is that the lines contain backslashes.

How do I do this?

Answer 1

Here is my snippet:

remove_lines()
{
    # remove lines from a file 
    #  
    # $1 - source file with patterns of lines to be removed
    # $2 - destination file
    tmpfile=$(mktemp "$(dirname -- "$2")"/XXXXXXXX) &&
    grep -F -f "$1" -v -- "$2" >>"$tmpfile" &&
    mv -- "$tmpfile" "$2" &&
}

EDIT: I've just realized that there is no sed in it, but that wasn't critical, was it?

Answer 2

Try the following script;

## $1 - Small File
## $2 - Large File

sed 's/^/\//; s/$/\/d/; s/\\/\\\\/g' $1 > $HOME/sed_scpt.txt
sed 's/\\/\\\\/g' $2 | sed -f $HOME/sed_scpt.txt > $HOME/desired_output.txt

## Alternatively, you could change the 2nd line with the following;
sed -f $HOME/sed_scpt.txt $2 > $HOME/desired_output.txt

Hope this helps.

NOTE: I've used GNU sed 4.2.1, if that matters as well.