> can do it.
echo "text" > file
tee can do it.
echo "test" | tee file
Can sed do it without using either of the above? Is it possible to save the output of a sed command to a file without using either > or tee?
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tee and > can be used for data redirection because these are meant to be used for data redirection in linux.
sed on the other hand is a stream editor. sed is not meant for data redirection as tee and > meant to be. However you can use conjunction of commands to do that.
use tee or > with sed
sed 's/Hello/Hi/g' file-name | tee file
or
sed 's/Hello/Hi/g' file-name > file
use sed with -i option
sed -i 's/Hello/Hi/g' file-name
the last one does not redirect, instead it will make changes in the file itself.
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1Thanks. You understood my question. So the answer is no. I thought
sedon it's own maybe could do it, because it's also capable of creating backup files with the-i.bakoption. – Folatt May 16 '16 at 10:56 -
2Correct. Also -i.bak is not a fixed option, you can use any extension, which you would like your backup file to have. for ex. -i.log will also work. :) – ankidaemon May 16 '16 at 11:24
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I just like to add that was actually looking for
echo "test" | dd of=file status=none, suppressing an echo's output without using the obscure output redirection2> /dev/null, but instead asked for sed's limitations. I was really impressed by sed's abilities as it's capable of appending lines in file, giving me the impression that sed could do anything tee could do and more. – Folatt May 16 '16 at 11:26
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sed has the w command that might do what you require:
w filename
Write the current pattern space to filename.
sed 'w file' on its own will have the same effect as tee file. If there are other sed commands, put the w last:
sed 's/This/That/;w file'
However, this won't be affected by the -n/--quiet/--silent option. That only suppresses the content that would otherwise have gone to standard output.
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As ankidaemon correctly pointed out how we can save sed output to a file. I would like to add that if we are performing some operations on a file i.e replace and would like to save the output to the same file. There is a -i flag in sed which makes inplace edits possible. This however creates a backup file in the process. If that's not needed, that can be done by just passing empty filename to -i flag.
sed '' file > newfileand you would have seen that>can indeed be used withsedjust like with any other program. – terdon♦ May 16 '16 at 10:09>operator. I was interested if there were a sed command that could be used instead. But I'll delete this question if it's so bad. – Folatt May 16 '16 at 10:29sed -ianswer, I'll edit your question and clarify what you're after. – terdon♦ May 16 '16 at 10:34sedis not meant for data redirection asteeand>(are) meant to be". – Folatt May 16 '16 at 10:51