ED(1)                                                                    ED(1)


NAME
       ed - text editor

SYNOPSIS
       ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]

DESCRIPTION
       Ed is the standard text editor.

       If  a  name argument is given, ed simulates an e command (see below) on
       the named file; that is to say, the file is read into  eds  buffer  so
       that  it  can  be  edited.  If -x is present, an x command is simulated
       first to handle an encrypted  file.   The  optional  -  suppresses  the
       printing  of  explanatory  output  and should be used when the standard
       input is an editor script.

       Ed operates on a copy of any file it is editing; changes  made  in  the
       copy  have  no  effect  on the file until a w (write) command is given.
       The copy of the text being edited resides in a  temporary  file  called
       the buffer.

       Commands  to  ed  have  a  simple  and  regular structure: zero or more
       addresses followed by a single character command, possibly followed  by
       parameters  to  the command.  These addresses specify one or more lines
       in the buffer.  Missing addresses are supplied by default.

       In general, only one command may appear on a  line.   Certain  commands
       allow  the addition of text to the buffer.  While ed is accepting text,
       it is said to be in input mode.  In this mode, no commands  are  recog‐
       nized;  all  input is merely collected.  Input mode is left by typing a
       period ‘.’ alone at the beginning of a line.

       Ed supports a limited form of regular expression notation.   A  regular
       expression  specifies a set of strings of characters.  A member of this
       set of strings is said to be matched by the regular expression.  In the
       following  specification  for  regular expressions the word ‘character’
       means any character but newline.

       1.     Any character except a special character matches  itself.   Spe‐
              cial  characters  are  the regular expression delimiter plus \[.
              and sometimes ^*$.

       2.     A .  matches any character.

       3.     A \ followed by any character except a digit or () matches  that
              character.

       4.     A  nonempty string s bracketed [s] (or [^s]) matches any charac‐
              ter in (or not in) s.  In s, \ has no special meaning, and ] may
              only  appear as the first letter.  A substring a-b, with a and b
              in ascending ASCII order, stands  for  the  inclusive  range  of
              ASCII characters.

       5.     A  regular  expression  of  form  1-4  followed  by  * matches a
              sequence of 0 or more matches of the regular expression.

       6.     A regular expression, x, of form 1-8,  bracketed  \(x\)  matches
              what x matches.

       7.     A  \ followed by a digit n matches a copy of the string that the
              bracketed regular expression beginning with the nth \(  matched.

       8.     A  regular  expression  of  form  1-8,  x, followed by a regular
              expression of form 1-7, y matches a match for x  followed  by  a
              match  for  y,  with the x match being as long as possible while
              still permitting a y match.

       9.     A regular expression of form 1-8 preceded by ^ (or  followed  by
              $),  is constrained to matches that begin at the left (or end at
              the right) end of a line.

       10.    A regular expression of form 1-9 picks out the longest among the
              leftmost matches in a line.

       11.    An  empty regular expression stands for a copy of the last regu‐
              lar expression encountered.

       Regular expressions are used in addresses to specify lines and  in  one
       command  (see  s  below)  to specify a portion of a line which is to be
       replaced.  If it is desired  to  use  one  of  the  regular  expression
       metacharacters as an ordinary character, that character may be preceded
       by ‘\’.  This also  applies  to  the  character  bounding  the  regular
       expression (often ‘/’) and to ‘\’ itself.

       To understand addressing in ed it is necessary to know that at any time
       there is a current line.  Generally speaking, the current line  is  the
       last  line affected by a command; however, the exact effect on the cur‐
       rent line is discussed under the description of the command.  Addresses
       are constructed as follows.

       1.     The character ‘.’ addresses the current line.

       2.     The character ‘$’ addresses the last line of the buffer.

       3.     A decimal number n addresses the n-th line of the buffer.

       4.     ‘′x’  addresses the line marked with the name x, which must be a
              lower-case  letter.   Lines  are  marked  with  the  k   command
              described below.

       5.     A  regular expression enclosed in slashes ‘/’ addresses the line
              found by searching forward from the current line and stopping at
              the  first  line  containing  a  string that matches the regular
              expression.  If necessary the search wraps around to the  begin‐
              ning of the buffer.

       6.     A  regular expression enclosed in queries ‘?’ addresses the line
              found by searching backward from the current line  and  stopping
              at  the  first line containing a string that matches the regular
              expression.  If necessary the search wraps around to the end  of
              the buffer.

       7.     An  address followed by a plus sign ‘+’ or a minus sign ‘-’ fol‐
              lowed by a decimal number specifies  that  address  plus  (resp.
              minus)  the  indicated  number  of  lines.  The plus sign may be
              omitted.

       8.     If an address begins with ‘+’ or ‘-’ the addition or subtraction
              is  taken  with respect to the current line; e.g. ‘-5’ is under‐
              stood to mean ‘.-5’.

       9.     If an address ends with ‘+’ or ‘-’, then 1 is added (resp.  sub‐
              tracted).  As a consequence of this rule and rule 8, the address
              ‘-’ refers to the  line  before  the  current  line.   Moreover,
              trailing  ‘+’ and ‘-’ characters have cumulative effect, so ‘--’
              refers to the current line less 2.

       10.    To maintain compatibility with earlier versions of  the  editor,
              the character ‘^’ in addresses is equivalent to ‘-’.

       Commands  may  require  zero,  one,  or  two addresses.  Commands which
       require no addresses regard the presence of an  address  as  an  error.
       Commands  which  accept  one  or two addresses assume default addresses
       when insufficient are given.  If more addresses are given than  such  a
       command  requires,  the last one or two (depending on what is accepted)
       are used.

       Addresses are separated from each other typically by a comma ‘,’.  They
       may  also  be  separated  by a semicolon ‘;’.  In this case the current
       line ‘.’ is set to the previous address  before  the  next  address  is
       interpreted.   This  feature can be used to determine the starting line
       for forward and backward searches (‘/’, ‘?’).  The  second  address  of
       any  two-address  sequence must correspond to a line following the line
       corresponding to the first address.  The special form ‘%’ is an  abbre‐
       viation for the address pair ‘1,$’.

       In  the  following list of ed commands, the default addresses are shown
       in parentheses.  The parentheses are not part of the address,  but  are
       used to show that the given addresses are the default.

       As  mentioned,  it  is  generally  illegal for more than one command to
       appear on a line.  However, most commands may be suffixed by ‘p’ or  by
       ‘l’, in which case the current line is either printed or listed respec‐
       tively in the way discussed below.  Commands may also  be  suffixed  by
       ‘n’,  meaning  the output of the command is to be line numbered.  These
       suffixes may be combined in any order.

       (.)a
       <text>
       .
            The append command reads the given text and appends it  after  the
            addressed line.  ‘.’ is left on the last line input, if there were
            any, otherwise at the addressed line.  Address ‘0’  is  legal  for
            this command; text is placed at the beginning of the buffer.

       (., .)c
       <text>
       .
            The change command deletes the addressed lines, then accepts input
            text which replaces these lines.  ‘.’ is left  at  the  last  line
            input;  if  there  were none, it is left at the line preceding the
            deleted lines.

       (., .)d
            The delete command deletes the addressed lines  from  the  buffer.
            The  line  originally after the last line deleted becomes the cur‐
            rent line; if the lines deleted were originally at  the  end,  the
            new last line becomes the current line.

       e filename
            The  edit  command  causes the entire contents of the buffer to be
            deleted, and then the named file to be read in.  ‘.’ is set to the
            last  line of the buffer.  The number of characters read is typed.
            ‘filename’ is remembered for possible use as a default  file  name
            in  a  subsequent  r  or w command.  If ‘filename’ is missing, the
            remembered name is used.

       E filename
            This command is the same as e, except that no  diagnostic  results
            when no w has been given since the last buffer alteration.

       f filename
            The  filename  command  prints the currently remembered file name.
            If ‘filename’ is given, the  currently  remembered  file  name  is
            changed to ‘filename’.

       (1,$)g/regular expression/command list
            In  the global command, the first step is to mark every line which
            matches the given regular expression.  Then for every  such  line,
            the  given command list is executed with ‘.’ initially set to that
            line.  A single command or the first of multiple commands  appears
            on  the  same line with the global command.  All lines of a multi-
            line list except the last line must be ended with ‘\’.  A, i,  and
            c commands and associated input are permitted; the ‘.’ terminating
            input mode may be omitted if it would be on the last line  of  the
            command  list.  The commands g and v are not permitted in the com‐
            mand list.

       (.)i

       <text>
       .
            This command inserts the given text  before  the  addressed  line.
            ‘.’ is left at the last line input, or, if there were none, at the
            line before the addressed line.  This command differs from  the  a
            command only in the placement of the text.

       (., .+1)j
            This  command joins the addressed lines into a single line; inter‐
            mediate newlines simply disappear.  ‘.’ is left at  the  resulting
            line.

       ( . )kx
            The  mark command marks the addressed line with name x, which must
            be a lower-case letter.  The address form ‘′x’ then addresses this
            line.

       (., .)l
            The list command prints the addressed lines in an unambiguous way:
            non-graphic characters are printed in two-digit  octal,  and  long
            lines  are  folded.   The l command may be placed on the same line
            after any non-i/o command.

       (., .)ma
            The move command repositions the addressed lines  after  the  line
            addressed  by  a.  The last of the moved lines becomes the current
            line.

       (., .)p
            The print command prints the addressed lines.  ‘.’  is left at the
            last  line  printed.  The p command may be placed on the same line
            after any non-i/o command.

       (., .)P
            This command is a synonym for p.

       q    The quit command causes ed to exit.  No automatic write of a  file
            is done.

       Q    This  command  is the same as q, except that no diagnostic results
            when no w has been given since the last buffer alteration.

       ($)r filename
            The read command reads in the given file after the addressed line.
            If  no  file  name  is given, the remembered file name, if any, is
            used (see e and f commands).  The file name is remembered if there
            was  no  remembered file name already.  Address ‘0’ is legal for r
            and causes the file to be read at the beginning of the buffer.  If
            the  read  is  successful, the number of characters read is typed.
            ‘.’ is left at the last line read in from the file.

       ( ., .)s/regular expression/replacement/       or,
       ( ., .)s/regular expression/replacement/g
            The substitute command searches each addressed line for an  occur‐
            rence  of the specified regular expression.  On each line in which
            a match is found, all matched strings are replaced by the replace‐
            ment  specified,  if  the global replacement indicator ‘g’ appears
            after the command.  If the global indicator does not appear,  only
            the  first occurrence of the matched string is replaced.  It is an
            error for the substitution to fail on all  addressed  lines.   Any
            punctuation  character  may  be used instead of ‘/’ to delimit the
            regular expression and the replacement.  ‘.’ is left at  the  last
            line substituted.

            An  ampersand  ‘&’ appearing in the replacement is replaced by the
            string matching the regular expression.  The  special  meaning  of
            ‘&’ in this context may be suppressed by preceding it by ‘\’.  The
            characters \n where n is a  digit,  are  replaced  by  the  text
            matched  by  the  n-th regular subexpression enclosed between ‘\(’
            and ‘\)’.  When nested, parenthesized subexpressions are  present,
            n  is determined by counting occurrences of ‘\(’ starting from the
            left.

            Lines may be split by substituting new-line characters into  them.
            The  new-line in the replacement string must be escaped by preced‐
            ing it by ‘\’.

            One or two trailing delimiters may be omitted,  implying  the  ‘p’
            suffix.   The  special  form ‘s’ followed by no delimiters repeats
            the most recent substitute command on the  addressed  lines.   The
            ‘s’  may be followed by the letters r (use the most recent regular
            expression for the left hand side, instead of the most recent left
            hand  side  of a substitute command), p (complement the setting of
            the p suffix from the previous substitution), or g (complement the
            setting  of  the  g suffix).  These letters may be combined in any
            order.

       (., .)ta
            This command acts just like the m command, except that a  copy  of
            the  addressed  lines  is placed after address a (which may be 0).
            ‘.’ is left on the last line of the copy.

       (., .)u
            The undo command restores the buffer to it’s state before the most
            recent  buffer  modifying  command.   The  current  line  is  also
            restored.  Buffer modifying commands are a, c, d, g, i, k,  m,  r,
            s, t, and v.  For purposes of undo, g and v are considered to be a
            single buffer modifying command.  Undo is its own inverse.

            When ed runs out of memory (at about 8000  lines  on  any  16  bit
            mini-computer  such as the PDP-11) This full undo is not possible,
            and u can only undo the effect of the most  recent  substitute  on
            the  current  line.   This  restricted undo also applies to editor
            scripts when ed is invoked with the - option.

       (1, $)v/regular expression/command list
            This command is the same as the global command g except  that  the
            command  list  is  executed g with ‘.’ initially set to every line
            except those matching the regular expression.

       (1, $)w filename
            The write command writes the addressed lines onto the given  file.
            If  the  file  does  not  exist,  it is created.  The file name is
            remembered if there was no remembered file name  already.   If  no
            file name is given, the remembered file name, if any, is used (see
            e and f commands).  ‘.’ is unchanged.  If the command is  success‐
            ful, the number of characters written is printed.

       (1, $)W filename
            This command is the same as w, except that the addressed lines are
            appended to the file.

       (1, $)wq filename
            This command is the same as w except that afterwards a  q  command
            is done, exiting the editor after the file is written.

       x    A  key string is demanded from the standard input.  Later r, e and
            w commands will encrypt and decrypt the text with this key by  the
            algorithm  of crypt(1).  An explicitly empty key turns off encryp‐
            tion.  (.+1)z    or,
       (.+1)zn
            This command scrolls through the buffer starting at the  addressed
            line.   22  (or  n,  if  given)  lines are printed.  The last line
            printed becomes the current line.  The value n is sticky, in  that
            it becomes the default for future z commands.

       ($)= The  line number of the addressed line is typed.  ‘.’ is unchanged
            by this command.

       !<shell command>
            The remainder of the line after the ‘!’ is sent  to  sh(1)  to  be
            interpreted as a command.  ‘.’  is unchanged.

       (.+1,.+1)<newline>
            An  address  alone  on  a  line  causes  the  addressed line to be
            printed.  A blank line alone is equivalent to ‘.+1p’; it is useful
            for  stepping  through text.  If two addresses are present with no
            intervening semicolon, ed prints the range of lines.  If they  are
            separated by a semicolon, the second line is printed.

       If  an  interrupt  signal (ASCII DEL) is sent, ed prints ‘?interrupted’
       and returns to its command level.

       Some size limitations: 512 characters  per  line,  256  characters  per
       global  command list, 64 characters per file name, and, on mini comput‐
       ers, 128K characters in the temporary file.  The limit on the number of
       lines depends on the amount of core: each line takes 2 words.

       When  reading  a file, ed discards ASCII NUL characters and all charac‐
       ters after the last newline.  It refuses to read files containing  non-
       ASCII characters.

FILES
       /tmp/e*
       edhup: work is saved here if terminal hangs up

SEE ALSO
       B. W. Kernighan, A Tutorial Introduction to the ED Text Editor
       B. W. Kernighan, Advanced editing on UNIX
       ex(1), sed(1), crypt(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
       ‘?name’  for  inaccessible  file; ‘?self-explanatory message’ for other
       errors.

       To protect against throwing away valuable work, a q  or  e  command  is
       considered  to  be  in  error,  unless  a w has occurred since the last
       buffer change.  A second q or e will be obeyed regardless.

BUGS
       The l command mishandles DEL.
       The undo command causes marks to be lost on affected lines.
       The x command, -x option, and special treatment of hangups only work on
       UNIX.


7th Edition                     April 29, 1985                           ED(1)
 
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