GNU sed Cheat Sheet
Sed is a stream editor. It transforms text in an input stream (a file or pipe). Sed works on one line at a
time, creating a pattern space; once pattern space is populated, transformations are performed.
Commands sed --options [optional SCRIPT] [INPUT STREAM]
p print h copy pattern to hold space H append to hold
d delete g copy hold space to pattern space G append to pattern
n read next line t branch on successful substitution b branch
s search and replace x exchange pattern and hold space
Options
-n, --quiet Don't automatically print the pattern space
-e, --expression Provide a script to be executed
-f, --file File containing a script
-i, --in-place .bak Make changes in a file directly, but create a backup copy
Address
An address or address range defines the input scope for a command
sed -n '1q;p' Select line 1, and then print delete sed '1 d'
sed -n '1p;$p' Select first and last lines, and print delete sed '1d;$d'
sed '1!p' Select all but the first line, and print delete sed '1!d'
sed '/foo/ p' Select lines containing foo, then print delete sed '/foo/ d'
sed '3,7 p' Starting on line 3 and ending on line 7, print each line
sed '3,/foo/ p' Starting on line 3, ending after the first occurrence of foo, print each line
Seth Kenlon CC BY-SA 4.0 Opensource.com
GNU sed Cheat Sheet
Find and replace
sed 's/closed/open/g' Replace closed with open
sed '/code/ s/closed/open/g' Replace closed with open on lines containing code
sed '/code/! s/closed/open/g' Replace only on lines NOT containing code
sed "s/$//" Replace newline characters
Putting it all together
sed -n -e '/[Oo]pen/h' \ Copy and delete (effectively cut), and then paste any
-e '/[Oo]pen/d' \ line containing Open or open after the line containing
projects
-e '/projects/ G;p'
sed '/^$/d' Delete any empty line
sed -e :branch \ Create a branch (called branch) replacing lines
containing nothing but a newline, then loop back to
-e '/^\n*$/{$d;N;branch' -e '}' the beginning of the branch until done
sed 's/^[ \t]*//' Remove leading spaces and tabs from line
Regular expression
. Any single character ^ Start of a line
? Match preceding item zero or one time $ End of a line
* Match preceding item zero or more times \s Space
+ Match preceding item one or more times \t Tab
{2} Match preceding item two times \n Newline
{3,} Match preceding item three or more times {,4} ...four or more times
[AB] Match A or B [1-3] Match all digits 1 to 3
Seth Kenlon CC BY-SA 4.0 Opensource.com
