> 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?
3 Answers
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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2Thanks. 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.– FolahtMay 16, 2016 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. :) May 16, 2016 at 11:24
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1I 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.– FolahtMay 16, 2016 at 11:26 -
Doesn't work with
-i:sed: 1: "pubspec.yaml": extra characters at the end of p command. My command:sed -i 's/version:.*/version: 0.0.11+4/g' pubspec.yaml– RebarJun 3, 2021 at 22:40 -
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.
answered May 16, 2016 at 11:31
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 a suffix is provided as argument. If that's not needed, that can be done by just passing empty filename or nothing to -i flag.
Example: sed -i "s/from/to/" file is inplace changing the file.
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2
sed '' file > newfileand you would have seen that>can indeed be used withsedjust like with any other program.>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.sed -ianswer, I'll edit your question and clarify what you're after.sedis not meant for data redirection asteeand>(are) meant to be".