Skip to content

SED

This document provides a collection of useful one-line scripts for sed, the Unix stream editor. These commands are designed for quick manipulation and modification of text files directly from the command line.

Text Transformations

  • Inserting Blank Lines:

    • sed G: Double-space a file by inserting a blank line after each line.
    • sed '/^$/d;G': Double-space a file, preserving existing single blank lines.
    • sed 'G;G': Triple-space a file.
    • sed '/regex/{x;p;x;}': Insert a blank line before each line matching regex.
    • sed '/regex/G': Insert a blank line after each line matching regex.

  • Removing Whitespace:

    • sed 's/^[ \t]*//': Remove leading whitespace (spaces and tabs).
    • sed 's/[ \t]*$//': Remove trailing whitespace.
    • sed 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//': Remove both leading and trailing whitespace.

  • Centering/Aligning Text:

    • sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,78\}$/ &/;ta': Right-align text within a 79-character width.
    • sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,77\}$/ & /;ta': Center text within a 79-character width (method 1, leading spaces significant).
    • sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,77\}$/ &/;ta' -e 's/\( *\)\1/\1/': Center text (method 2, leading spaces discarded).

Line Numbering and Counting

  • sed = filename | sed 'N;s/\n/\t/': Number each line, left-aligned, using tabs for spacing.
  • sed = filename | sed 'N; s/^/ /; s/ *\(.\{6,\}\)\n/\1 /': Number each line, left-aligned, right-justified numbers.
  • sed '/./=' filename | sed '/./N; s/\n/ /': Number only non-blank lines.
  • sed -n '$=': Count the number of lines in a file (similar to wc -l).

String Manipulation and Substitution

  • sed 's/foo/bar/': Replace the first instance of "foo" with "bar" on each line.
  • sed 's/foo/bar/g': Replace all instances of "foo" with "bar" on each line.
  • sed 's/\(.*\)foo/\1bar/': Replace only the last occurrence of "foo" with "bar" on each line.
  • sed 's/scarlet/red/g;s/ruby/red/g;s/puce/red/g': Replace multiple words ("scarlet", "ruby", "puce") with "red".
  • gsed 's/scarlet\|ruby\|puce/red/g': Same as above, using GNU sed's alternation feature.
  • sed '$!N;s/\n/ /': Join consecutive lines with a space. Useful for formatting or combining data.
  • gsed ':a;s/\B[0-9]\{3\}\>/,&/;ta': Insert commas into numbers (e.g., 1234567 becomes 1,234,567) using GNU sed.

Line and Paragraph Manipulation

  • sed '1!G;h;$!d': Reverse the order of lines in a file (similar to tac).
  • sed -e :a -e '/\\$/N; s/\\\n//; ta': Join lines ending with a backslash with the next line. Useful for handling multi-line entries.
  • sed -n '/^$/{p;h;};/./{x;/./p;}': Delete the last line of each paragraph (paragraphs separated by blank lines).

Content Filtering and Extraction

  • sed 10q: Print only the first 10 lines (similar to head).
  • sed -n '8,12p': Print lines 8 through 12.
  • sed '52!d': Print only line 52.
  • sed -n '/regexp/p': Print only lines matching the regular expression regexp (similar to grep).
  • sed '/regexp/d': Delete lines matching the regular expression regexp.
  • sed -n '/Iowa/,/Montana/p': Print the block of lines starting with a line containing "Iowa" and ending with a line containing "Montana".
  • sed '/Iowa/,/Montana/d': Delete the block of lines between "Iowa" and "Montana".
  • sed '$!N; /^\(.*\)\n\1$/!P; D': Remove duplicate, consecutive lines (similar to uniq).

Newline Conversion

  • sed 's/.$//': Convert DOS/Windows newlines (CRLF) to Unix newlines (LF). Assumes all lines end in CRLF.
  • sed 's/$/\r/': Convert Unix newlines (LF) to DOS/Windows newlines (CRLF).

Special Applications

  • sed "s/.echo \\b//g": Remove nroff overstrikes (often seen in older man pages).
  • sed '/^$/q': Extract the header of an email message (up to the first blank line).

Sed Execution and Quoting

Sed commands can be piped or applied directly to files:

sed 'command' filename          # Applies the command to the file
cat filename | sed 'command'   # Equivalent command using pipes
sed 'command' filename > output # Redirects output to a new file

Use single quotes ('...') around sed commands to prevent shell interpretation of special characters like $ and backticks. Double quotes are usually required in DOS versions of sed.

Performance Optimization

For large files, using an address range or the q command can dramatically improve speed. For example:

sed -n '51q;45,50p' filename  #  Prints lines 45-50 and quits, much faster for large files.

Placing the pattern before the s command in substitutions can also improve performance:

sed '/foo/s/foo/bar/g' filename # Faster than sed 's/foo/bar/g' filename

This cheat sheet provides a starting point for using sed. For more advanced usage and a deeper understanding of regular expressions, consult the sed man page (man sed) and dedicated resources on regular expressions.

📊 Analytics

View Dashboard →

📈 This page is being tracked with GoatCounter. Click here to view detailed analytics including page views, referrers, and visitor statistics.

Show Public Statistics
Live view counter for this page