Learning Linux sed command with examples
Linux command syntax Linux command description
sed 's/Linux|linux/RHEL/g' report.txt Replace every occurrence of Linux or linux with
RHEL.
sed 's/^/ /' file.txt > file_new.txt Add 8 spaces to the left of a text for pretty printing.
sed -n '/Of course/, /attention you \ Display only one paragraph, starting with "Of
pay/p' myfile course"
and ending in "attention you pay"
sed -n 12,18p file.txt Show only lines 12-18 of file.txt
sed 12,18d file.txt Show all of file.txt except for lines from 12 to 18
sed G file.txt Double-space file.txt
sed -f script.sed file.txt Write all commands in script.sed and execute them
sed '5!s/ham/cheese/' file.txt Replace ham with cheese in file.txt except in the 5th
line
sed '$d' file.txt Delete the last line
sed '/[0-9]\{3\}/p' file.txt Print only lines with three consecutive digits
sed '/boom/!s/aaa/bb/' file.txt Unless boom is found replace aaa with bb
sed '17,/disk/d' file.txt Delete all lines from line 17 to 'disk'
echo ONE TWO | sed "s/one/unos/I" Replaces one with unos in a case-insensitive
manner,
so it will print "unos TWO"
sed 'G;G' file.txt Triple-space a file
sed 's/.$//' file.txt A way to replace dos2unix :)
sed 's/^[ ^t]*//' file.txt Delete all spaces in front of every line of file.txt
sed 's/[ ^t]*$//' file.txt Delete all spaces at the end of every line of file.txt
sed 's/^[ ^t]*//;s/[ ^]*$//' file.txt Delete all spaces in front and at the end of every line
of file.txt
sed 's/foo/bar/' file.txt Replace foo with bar only for the first instance in a
line.
sed 's/foo/bar/4' file.txt Replace foo with bar only for the 4th instance in a
line.
sed 's/foo/bar/g' file.txt Replace foo with bar for all instances in a line.
sed '/baz/s/foo/bar/g' file.txt Only if line contains baz, substitute foo with bar
sed '/./,/^$/!d' file.txt Delete all consecutive blank lines except for EOF
sed '/^$/N;/\n$/D' file.txt Delete all consecutive blank lines, but allows
only top blank line
sed '/./,$!d' file.txt Delete all leading blank lines
sed -e :a -e '/^\n*$/{$d;N;};/\n$/ba' \ Delete all trailing blank lines
file.txt
sed -e :a -e '/\$/N; s/\\n//; ta' \ If a file ends in a backslash, join it with the next
file.txt (useful
for shell scripts)
sed '/regex/,+5/expr/' Match regex plus the next 5 lines
sed '1~3d' file.txt Delete every third line, starting with the first
sed -n '2~5p' file.txt Print every 5th line starting with the second
sed 's/[Nn]ick/RHEL/g' report.txt Another way to write some example above.
Can you guess which one?
sed -n '/RE/{p;q;}' file.txt Print only the first match of
RE (regular expression)
sed '0,/RE/{//d;}' file.txt Delete only the first match
sed '0,/RE/s//to_that/' file.txt Change only the first match
sed 's/^[^,]*,/9999,/' file.csv Change first field to 9999 in a CSV file
s/^ *\(.*[^ ]\) *$/||/; sed script to convert CSV file to bar-separated
s/" *, */"|/g;
: loop
s/| *\([^",|][^,|]*\) *, */||/g; (works only on some types of CSV,
s/| *, */||/g;
t loop
s/ *|/|/g; with embedded "s and commas)
s/| */|/g;
s/^|\(.*\)|$//;
sed ':a;s/\(^\|[^0-9.]\)\([0-9]\+\)\ Change numbers from file.txt from 1234.56 form to
([0-9]\{3\}\)/,/g;ta' file.txt 1.234.56
sed -r "s/\<(reg|exp)[a-z]+/\U&/g" Convert any word starting with reg or exp to
uppercase
sed '1,20 s/RHELson/White/g' file.txt Do replacement of RHELson with White only on
lines between 1 and 20
sed '1,20 !s/RHELson/White/g' file.txt The above reversed (match all except lines 1-20)
sed '/from/,/until/ { Replace only between "from" and "until"
s/\<red\>/magenta/g; \
s/\<blue\>/cyan/g; }' file.txt
sed '/ENDNOTES:/,$ { Replace only from the word "ENDNOTES:" until
s/Schaff/Herzog/g; \ EOF
s/Kraft/Ebbing/g; }' file.txt
sed '/./{H;$!d;};x;/regex/!d' file.txt Print paragraphs only if they contain regex
sed -e '/./{H;$!d;}' -e 'x;/RE1/!d;\ Print paragraphs only if they contain RE1,
/RE2/!d;/RE3/!d' file.txt
RE2 and RE3
sed ':a; /\$/N; s/\\n//; ta' file.txt Join two lines in the first ends in a backslash
sed 's/14"/fourteen inches/g' file.txt This is how you can use double quotes
sed 's/\/some\/UNIX\/path/\/a\/new\ Working with Unix paths
/path/g' file.txt
sed 's/[a-g]//g' file.txt Remove all characters from a to g from file.txt
sed 's/\(.*\)foo/bar/' file.txt Replace only the last match of foo with bar
sed '1!G;h;$!d' A tac replacement
sed '/\n/!G;s/\(.\)\(.*\n\)/&\ A rev replacement
/;//D;s/.//'
sed 10q file.txt A head replacement
sed -e :a -e '$q;N;11,$D;ba' \ A tail replacement
file.txt
sed '$!N; /^\(.*\)\n$/!P; D' \ A uniq replacement
file.txt
sed '$!N; s/^\(.*\)\n$//;\ The opposite (or uniq -d equivalent)
t; D' file.txt
sed '$!N;$!D' file.txt Equivalent to tail -n 2
sed -n '$p' file.txt ... tail -n 1 (or tail -1)
sed '/regexp/!d' file.txt grep equivalent
sed -n '/regexp/{g;1!p;};h' file.txt Print the line before the one matching regexp, but
not the one containing the regexp
sed -n '/regexp/{n;p;}' file.txt Print the line after the one matching the regexp, but
not the one containing the regexp
sed '/pattern/d' file.txt Delete lines matching pattern
sed '/./!d' file.txt Delete all blank lines from a file
sed '/^$/N;/\n$/N;//D' file.txt Delete all consecutive blank lines
except for the first two
sed -n '/^$/{p;h;};/./{x;/./p;}'\ Delete the last line of each paragraph
file.txt
sed 's/.\x08//g' file Remove nroff overstrikes
sed '/^$/q' Get mail header
sed '1,/^$/d' Get mail body
sed '/^Subject: */!d; s///;q' Get mail subject
sed 's/^/> /' Quote mail message by inserting a
"> " in front of every line
sed 's/^> //' The opposite (unquote mail message)
sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba' Remove HTML tags
sed '/./{H;d;};x;s/\n/={NL}=/g'\ Sort paragraphs of file.txt alphabetically
file.txt | sort \
| sed '1s/={NL}=//;s/={NL}=/\n/g'
sed 's@/usr/bin@&/local@g' path.txt Replace /usr/bin with /usr/bin/local in path.txt
sed 's@^.*$@<<<&>>>@g' path.txt Try it and see :)
sed 's/\(\/[^:]*\).*//g' path.txt Provided path.txt contains $PATH, this will
echo only the first path on each line
sed 's/\([^:]*\).*//' /etc/passwd awk replacement - displays only the users
from the passwd file
echo "Welcome To The Geek Stuff" | Self-explanatory
sed \
's/\(\b[A-Z]\)/\(\)/g'
(W)elcome (T)o (T)he (G)eek (S)tuff
sed -e '/^$/,/^END/s/hills/\ Swap 'hills' for 'mountains', but only on blocks
mountains/g' file.txt
of text beginning
with a blank line, and ending with a line beginning
with the three characters 'END', inclusive
sed -e '/^#/d' /etc/services | more View the services file without the commented lines
sed '$s@\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\):\([^:]*\ Reverse order of items in the last line of path.txt
\)@::@g' path.txt
sed -n -e '/regexp/{=;x;1!p;g;$!N;p;D;}'\ Print 1 line of context before and after the line
-e h file.txt matching,
with a line number where the matching occurs
sed '/regex/{x;p;x;}' file.txt Insert a new line above every line matching regex
sed '/AAA/!d; /BBB/!d; /CCC/!d' file.txt Match AAA, BBB and CCC in any order
sed '/AAA.*BBB.*CCC/!d' file.txt Match AAA, BBB and CCC in that order
sed -n '/^.\{65\}/p' file.txt Print lines 65 chars long or more
sed -n '/^.\{65\}/!p' file.txt Print lines 65 chars long or less
sed '/regex/G' file.txt Insert blank line below every line
sed '/regex/{x;p;x;G;}' file.txt Insert blank line above and below
sed = file.txt | sed 'N;s/\n/\t/' Number lines in file.txt
sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,78\}$/\ Align text flush right
&/;ta' file.txt
sed -e :a -e 's/^.\{1,77\}$/ &/;ta' -e \ Align text center
's/\( *\)//' file.txt
