Questions tagged [ed]
For questions about the editor ed, a scriptable line-oriented text editor, originally written by Ken Thompson for the Multics and Unix operating systems. Use this tag for questions about ed itself or questions about issues arising from using the ed editor.
79
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Remove last line of file by any user, owned by root
I have a file with permissions 666 so users can edit it with a different script. This works.
I need to script to remove the last line of the file, however this is not working as using something like ...
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2
answers
108
views
POSIX way to add content around a line in a file
I'm looking for a way to edit files with a script that will provide an alternate definition for a variable in C and this redefinition is controlled by a compiler D-flag using a POSIX application that ...
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2
votes
1
answer
98
views
How to increase the size of the .ed_history file
I am running GNU ed 1.18 on Fedora Linux 36. I run ed with rlwrap also installed which gives me access to my command history. My .ed_history file appears to have a size limit of 300 lines. I would ...
- 492
0
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1
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165
views
Inserting the line to be changed in ed
In ed there is the useful c command which allows one to make changes to a specific line. (Using rlwrap as well allows for easier changes, once a line has already been changed, because one can use the ...
- 492
3
votes
3
answers
814
views
Replacing strange characters in a sed command
I want to create a sed command that will remove all of these strange characters from a given document:
sed -n 's/\|®MD-IT¯\|®MD\+BO¯\|®MDNM¯®LL\.8LI,0LI¯\|®LL0LI,0LI¯\|®MD\+IT¯\|®LL.8LI,0LI¯®MDIT¯\|®...
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2
votes
1
answer
447
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ed does not join lines with ASCII text, with CRLF, LF line terminators
I am currently running Gnu ed version 1.18 in the Debian WSL on Windows. If I edit a file with the following encoding:
ASCII text, with CRLF, LF line terminators
or
ASCII text, with CRLF,
then ed ...
- 492
2
votes
1
answer
962
views
What are the main differences between the ed and the ex editor? [closed]
The ex editor is often touted as an enhancement and simplification of ed. I would like to know what specific enhancements and simplifications it offers. GNU ed, for example, offers extended regular ...
- 492
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1
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143
views
Deleting specific line numbers in ed in a single command
In ed one can delete a line number by typing its address followed by the delete command, as in 1d. To delete a range of lines, one uses the comma, as in 1,4d. One can also delete lines with specific ...
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1
vote
1
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27
views
Ed bookmarks disappear after a global replacement
If I make a bookmark in ed for an address by invoking k plus any other letter, I can return to that address later by invoking '+letter. I frequently make these bookmarks, especially when navigating a ...
- 492
0
votes
1
answer
87
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Typing unicode characters into ed
I wondered if it was possible to type Unicode characters like an em_dash and curly quotes into ed. I am completing a project that requires these special characters in the document.
- 492
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1
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51
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Substituting the second occurrence of a word/phrase in ed
What would the syntax be for replacing only the second/third occurrence of a word/phrase in ed?
He wanted to buy groceries from the shop, but preferred not having to go into the shop. >>
He ...
- 492
2
votes
2
answers
127
views
swap position of consecutive multiple lines in after pattern matching
I am trying to edit a big text file.
What I am trying to achieve is swap lines from positions between 3 and 14 to positions between 16 and 27.
I have extracted UPDATE statements from MySQL bin-logs ...
0
votes
1
answer
105
views
How to scroll backward in ed
BSD ed and GNU ed have the z command for scrolling. However, repeatedly using the z command only seems to scroll forward. Is there something similar to z that can scroll backward instead of forward?
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1
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69
views
How to enable help mode by default in ed
After starting ed, help mode can be enabled using the H command. Is there a way to enable help mode by default, so that I do not have to type H every time I use ed?
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1
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162
views
How to cancel the current input in ed
In GNU ed, is there a way to cancel the current input? For example:
$ ed myfile.txt
1234
a
Wrong speling.
Bad sentance.
At this point, I want to cancel the input. I no longer want to insert the two ...
- 2,770
1
vote
1
answer
208
views
How do I move to a line in ed without printing the line?
In GNU ed, how do I move to a line without printing it? If I want to move to line 123, I would input 123 Enter, but that would also print the contents of the line. Is there a way to not print when ...
- 2,770
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9
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sed : have a range finishing with the last occurrence of a pattern (greedy range)
Take the following file :
$ cat f1
stu vwx yza
uvw xyz abc
abc def ghi
def ghi jkl
ghi jkl mno
jkl mno pqr
mno pqr stu
pqr stu vwx
stu vwx yza
To print all lines from the first one containing abc to ...
- 1,497
0
votes
1
answer
172
views
Marking multiple lines in ed
I've opened ed and inserted the following text:
This text
Is a
Test
However, when I attempt to mark lines 1-3 using the following command:
1,3ki
And print them with
'ip
It only prints the last ...
2
votes
2
answers
112
views
Search with line numbers in GNU Ed
I have recently begun learning ed, however I've come to the point where I need to search for text. My first attempt was ed's / command, which will show occurrences, but doesn't include line numbers. ...
2
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1
answer
199
views
Adding a command to break long lines into shorter ones to an ed script
I frequently have long lines in my ed document which I would like to split into separate lines of max length. I found this command which achieves this:
fold -s -w80 file
Split very long lines
I can ...
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1
vote
1
answer
112
views
Changing the case of lines in ed
Can I employ the tr command to change the case of a line or range of lines while working in ed? Or is there another way?
- 492
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1
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72
views
How to obviate the problem of no spaces when joining lines in ed
In ed it is easy to join lines together. For example,
12,13j joins lines 12 and 13
-1,.j joins the line before to the current line
However, ed does not add a space between the joined lines,
and ...
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2
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161
views
Subexpression in ed for multiple substitutions
Let's say I have a piece of text that says:
John went with Sally to the market where they bought fresh bread. There they met with Jim and dined together.
Let's say that I wanted to write a regex to ...
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2
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190
views
Searching for X but not Y in ed
In the editor sam, one can search for and print out the string "ed" but not "red" with this command:
,x./*\n/ g/ed v/red p
I was trying to find a way to do something similar in ed....
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0
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1
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63
views
Is there a way to delete two non-juxtaposed duplicate lines in ed?
I was looking for a way to delete non-juxtaposed duplicate lines in ed such as,
ed is a terminal editor
sam is a bitmap editor
emacs is a macro editor
ed is a terminal editor
I am hoping to produce:
...
- 492
0
votes
1
answer
123
views
Paste text into sam editor from an external application
I am running the editor sam as a standalone application on Linux. I am using this version:
git clone https://github.com/9fans/plan9port plan9
So far I have not been able to figure out a way to paste ...
- 492
2
votes
1
answer
799
views
Showing line numbers by default in ed
In the ex editor, one can show line numbers by default by adding this line to a .exrc file:
set number
Is there a way to have ed start with line numbers showing by default, when lines are invoked?
- 492
2
votes
1
answer
378
views
Running an ed script from within ed
I have created a script file called "cleanup" which contains a series of regular expressions that clean up an ed file(s) of blank spaces, trailing white-space, blank lines etc. I run it as ...
- 492
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vote
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275
views
Is there a command in ed that repeats the last command?
Is there a command in ed that repeats the last command? I know that one can repeat the last search (with //) but a command to repeat and/or edit the last command without having to retype it would be ...
- 492
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1
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368
views
What is the difference between Gnu Ed and the version of Ed that ships with Unix?
I was wondering is there is any functional difference between Gnu Ed and the version of Ed which ships with BSD Unix systems? I am currently using Gnu Ed 1.17 on Debian 10 but discovered this page:
...
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10
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2
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1k
views
How would I replace two or more blank lines with a single blank line in Ed?
In Ed I can do a search to replace all blank lines as follows:
g/^$/d
This deletes all blank lines. But what if I wish to delete two or more blank lines and keep 1? For example:
Line 1
Line 2
Line ...
- 492
2
votes
1
answer
89
views
Why does ed start at the last line?
Why does ed start at the last instead of first line of a file?
Most of ed's behavior makes sense when you remember that it was for interacting with a printer, but not this. Since I believe it reads ...
0
votes
1
answer
227
views
Replace "),(" with "),\n(" in Linux
Hy everybody.
I have the following insert in a MySQL script file as an example that I obtained from mysqldump in Linux Ubuntu Server with no GUI.
INSERT INTO `table` VALUES (AAAA, BBBB, CCCC),(DDDD, ...
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votes
1
answer
176
views
Why does ed support backreferences but not alternations in regular expressions?
I was looking into the history and development of regular expressions. I found the following timeline:
1956 - Kleene introduces regular expressions in his paper on nerve nets.
1964 - Brzozowsi ...
- 133
0
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2
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109
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Line editor ed saves some filenames in single quotes followed by one space
I'm following The Unix Programming Environment exercises
and have encountered some weird issues. While going through the ed exercise, when you
just start ed, type in the exercise, then do
w poem
It ...
- 250
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votes
1
answer
124
views
sdiff usage regaring merging changes in to an output file? How to come out of edit mode?
I tried
sdiff file1 file2 -o file3 and everything seems to be going well.
I could enter l or r to choose left or right side content in to the output file.
But for a particular change, I had to edit ...
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6
votes
1
answer
207
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How do I move the last 3 lines of a pipeline to the top of the output with ed?
I have a small AWK script that summarizes the output of another program, and I am trying to print that summary before the command itself, but I cannot figure out a good way to do it. My naive first ...
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1
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294
views
Ed: is possible to substitute between one string and another one?
This command on ed editor
/string.start/;/string.end/dp
deleted all words (not the entire line, this happen using , instead of ;) between the string.start and string.end
Is possible to replace/...
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1
vote
1
answer
139
views
How do I see what files were changed by the "ed" command?
I'm trying to write a script that ensures all text files end with a newline character.
When I run this command in a particular folder:
find . -exec ed -s {} <<< w \;
I get the following ...
- 925
8
votes
8
answers
4k
views
How to cut a file starting from the line in which a certain pattern occurs?
I have a gazillion files which need to be reduced in size. I found that most (not all) files have an end section which can be cut without losing information:
Data 1
Data 2
something_unimportant_here ...
- 8,596
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275
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How can I insert the contents of a shell command into my UNIX ed buffer?
I think I know how I can do this by writing to an external file, but I'm wondering if it's possible to directly insert the contents of a shell command into a UNIX ed buffer. I'm using GNU ed 1.15.
...
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613
views
How can I insert a lone dot on a line using ed's "insert" command?
How may I insert a lone dot on a line with the ed editor? Normally, a dot on a line by itself ends the insertion; can it somehow be escaped?
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112
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ed(1) adds ^M to every line of my file
I am working on automating a WordPress install. While editing wp-config.php file, I need to replace 8 lines containing put your unique phrase here with Salt generated by WordPress.org servers.
So, I ...
user377738
3
votes
2
answers
1k
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ed(1) script with multiple search/replace
Working on a question for codegolf.se, trying to do a simple text replacement.
Given a file coin.txt containing 1 word, either heads or tails
I have an ed script flip.ed as follows:
s/heads/1/n\
s/...
- 217
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
ed command: Delete from line 1 until the first blank line
I came across this code from a textbook; the book only says that 1,/^[ ]*$/d
means “Delete from line 1 until the first blank line.” What does each character specifically mean?
ed $1 << EOF
...
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votes
3
answers
1k
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How to reverse input order?
The following code provides a backwards output when inputted as first to last, so input is required to be in reverse. How can this be flipped/reversed?
EDITED on 2019-05-23_07:52:04
(printf 'g?%s?m0\...
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513
views
How to modify this `printf` code to reverse it's action?
Code below can, for example ...
[anony@mous-pc ~]$ (printf 'g?%s?m0\n' 008 006 004 002 ; printf 'wq\n') | ed -s file.txt
... take all of numbers within ...
[anony@mous-pc ~]$ cat some.txt
005
003
...
- 503
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vote
1
answer
187
views
How to move lines containing specific text to top of file in same order as code executed?
How to move lines containing specific text to top of file in same order as code executed?
Here is the code I have:
printf 'g?_001\|_002\|_003\|_004\|_005?m0\nwq\n' | ed -s target_file
( credit ...
- 503
1
vote
3
answers
387
views
Can I replace multiple characters in ed?
I have a text 'ab' whose content is composed of a,b letter.
I want to change a to b, b to a at once by using s command in ed.
But if I change them step by step, as you know, all the text will be ...
- 39
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3
answers
1k
views
how to remove the empty/blank lines from files that appears as @ from vi
when I open file by vi
as
vi file
Current partition replica assignment
@
@
@
@
@
{"version":1,"partitions":[{"topic")]
@
@
@
@
@
Proposed partition reassignment configuration
but I try to delete ...
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