Sed command examples in Linux and Unix How to use

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Sed command examples in Linux and UNIX

This sed command examples tutorial is divided into five parts which includes.
1. Sed command in UNIX and Linux examples introduction
Sed with &
Sed with s
Sed with g
Sed with d
Delete ranges
Sed with I
Sed with e
2. Basic Sed command to replace string in Linux and Unix
Sed replace string
Sed replace string from nth pattern
Replace all pattern
Sed replace all pattern from nth pattern
Replace string in a particular line
Using other delimiter instead of (/)
3. Advance Sed command to search and replace string in Linux and Unix
Adding extra character
To change the position of character with sed

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Making changes to the string with \1, \2, \3

Duplicating a line
How to replace string on a particular line
Using $ with the sed command
How to delete line by sed
To search any string in a file
Sed to print duplicate lines
How to run multiple sed commands
Sed to print line which doesn't match
Replacing a line with a new line by sed
Sed command to add new line
Transforming case of letters
Removing blank lines
Sed script
How to replace a line starting with a space into a new line
4. Man sed (Man page of sed command)
Sed f example
Sed follow symlinks
Sed i option example
Sed binary mode (--binary)
Sed line wrap
Sed unbuffered (-u)
Sed --separate (-s)
Sed with c\
Sed append (a\)
Sed q command for exit
Sed w flag
Using flag y
Sed branching (Labels)
5. Tricks of sed command in UNIX and Linux
Numbering each line of your file
Counting lines
Print lines having 20 or more than 20 characters in a file
Delete all blank spaces from a file
Print only valid email address from file

You may also like to read one more article Sed tutorial written for Linux administrators for their daily stream editing
tasks.

Sed command examples introduction

Sed command is commonly used to replace string in Unix or Linux based OS. That is why it is more
commonly used as 'sed replace'.
Sed is stream editor in Unix. It is used to parse and transforms texts.
Sed was developed in the year 1973.
Sed uses compact programming language, it was built for command line processing.

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Sed is also used to make programs which can change files.

It is based on two very old editors one is ed (editor) and another is qed (quick editor)

Sed command options

Before going deep into basic and advance of sed command, It is salient to know about the options and argument
you can apply with sed command. Some of the common option that are used with sed are.

Sed with &

The option & is used to append to the searched pattern. The syntax to use '&' is.
sed 's/search_pattern/& append_pattern/'
file.txt
The below command will find the search pattern '123' and append '456' to it.
# sed 's/123/&456/' file.txt

Sed with s
S stands for substitution. It replaces the searched string with the new string.
sed 's/searched_pattern/replaced_pattern/'
file.txt
The below command will replace the string 'ABC' with 'ZYX'. In the given sed command, sed will replace only the first
occurrence of the pattern in each line.
# sed 's/ABC/ZYX/'
file.txt

Sed with g
g works as global replacement when used with sed command. The following command will replace all the searched
pattern with the replaced pattern.
sed 's/searched_pattern/replaced_pattern/'g
file.txt

Sed with d
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Option 'd' is used to delete lines from files.

The following command will delete all lines from file.
# sed 'd'
file.txt
This will delete line number 2 from file.
# sed '2d'
file.txt
Similarly, to delete 3rd and fourth line following syntax can be used.
# sed '3d'
file.txt

# sed '4d'
file.txt

Delete range of lines

To delete lines from first to third.
$ sed '1, 3d'
file.txt
However, you cannot delete lines in sed in reverse order, because sed doesn't work in reverse way. For example the
following sed command will delete only the third line in a file and leave the rest.
# sed '3, 1d'
myfile.txt.
1~4d or 2~3d
The below sed command will delete the first line in a file, move onto the 4th line, then delete the fifth line in the file.
$ sed '1~4d'
file.txt
Similarly, in this sed example, sed will delete the second line, move to the third line and delete the fourth line.
$ sed '2~3d'
file.txt
1, +3d
The below given sed example will delete the first line, then go on to delete the next third line.

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$ sed '1, +3d'

file.txt
The below example will delete the second line, then continue to delete next four lines.
$ sed '2, +4d'
file.txt
1,3!d
This will delete all the lines excluding line numbers from 1 to 3.
$ sed '1,3!d'
file.txt
Similarly, to delete all lines excluding line numbers 5 to 8, following sed command can be used.
$ sed '5,8!d'
file.txt

Sed with I
'I' Ignore case is used to make the search pattern case insensitive.
sed 's/search_pattern/replace_pattern/I <file
name>

# sed 's/abc/xyz/I'
file1.txt

Sed with e
'e' option with sed command is used to execute multiple sed commands. You have to use '-e' before each command.
Look at the below example.
# sed -e 's/abcd/dcba/' -e 's/qrst/tsrq/'
file1.txt

Basic Sed command examples to replace string in Linux and Unix

Sed ( Stream Editor ) is a command which is used for replacing and modifying text in a file. Although Sed is used to
search and replace string, but you can also use sed command for other tasks.

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Note: Sometime you ought to be very cautious while using sed to replace any string. For example the following
command will replace all the string 'he' with string 'she'. Suppose if the file.txt contains a sentence "He board the
aeroplane today morning to reach New York". The output of the command would be.
"He board tshe aeroplane today morning to reach New York". Notice the word "the" becomes "tshe", beacause 'the'
also contains the word 'he' in it.
$ sed 's/he/she/'
file.txt

Sed replace string

First create a file called sedfile.txt and edit the file as given.
# cat > sedfile.txt
I am using Windows since I was in
college
linux is the best open source OS
The most common use of sed is to replace any string in a file. This is an example where I am replacing the string
"Windows" with "Linux". The below command can be run to check before actually make permanent modification to
the file.
# sed 's/Windows/Linux/' sedfile.txt
I am using Linux since I was in
college
linux is the best open source OS
To make the permanent modification to the file, use the below sed command. Now at this time it will copy the
modified file to a new file called sedfileModify.txt
# sed 's/Windows/Linux/' sedfile.txt
>sedfileModify.txt

Sed command examples to replace nth pattern in a line

The above comand will replace only the first matching pattern in a line. To replace the nth pattern you have to
execute the sed command in a different way.
For example I have edited the file 'sedfile.txt' as given below.

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# vi sedfile.txt
I am using Windows since I was in college. If I have to choose I will choose
Windows
linux is the best open source OS
~
~
To change the 2th pattern execute the command as given below. Similarly you can replace any number of pattern in
the file. To replace the third pattern in a line you can use '3'
# sed 's/Windows/Linux/2'
sedfile.txt

Replacing all the pattern in a line

To replace all the pattern in a line you can use global option 'g'. The following sed command will replace all the
"Windows" string in the file to "Linux"
# sed 's/Windows/Linux/g'
sedfile.txt

Replacing all the pattern from the nth pattern

The below command will replace all the matching pattern from the 2th pattern.
I have edited the sedfile.txt once more to be more comprehensive.
# vi sedfile.txt
I am using Windows since I was in college. If I have to choose I will choose
Windows. Windows Windows
linux is the best open source OS
~
~
# sed 's/Windows/Linux/2g' sedfile.txt
I am using Windows since I was in college. If I have to choose I will choose Linux.
Linux Linux
linux is the best open source OS

Replace string in a particular line

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If you want to replace string only on a particular line, following sed command can be used. The given sed command
will replace all the string 'MS' to 'OS' in fourth line.
$ sed '4s/MS/OS/g'
file.txt
Replace string range of lines
Likewise, to replace string in a range of lines from 3 to 5, use the below sed command.
$ sed '3,5s/OS/MS/g'
file.txt

Using other delimiter instead of slash (/) delimiter

Using too many slash delimiter at a time makes the Sed command looks messy. For example you may want to
change http:// to www. The http:// url already contains slash delimiter, using slash (/) again with the command will
definitely make the command looks very confusing.
The following command will throw an error if you use front slash delimiter (/) as given below.
# sed 's/http:///www/' url.txt
sed: -e expression #1, char 10: unknown option to
`s'

You can alter the same command in the following way to change http:// to www.
# sed 's\http://\www\'
url.txt
www
or
# sed 's_http://_www_'
url.txt
or
# sed 's|http://|www|'
url.txt

Advance Sed command in UNIX and Linux to search and replace string in Linux and Unix

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Adding extra character

Some times you may just want to add an extra character to the existing pattern. You can do that by '&' with the sed
command.
Lets see some simple examples given below.
Example:1
# sed 's/linux/[&]/' sedfile.txt
Eat [linux] drink linux sleep linux
I am using Windows since I was in college.If I have to choose I will choose Windows.
Windows Windows
[linux] is the best open source OS
Example:2

Adding '&&' with the sed command copying the first searched pattern 'linux' and modfying it to l'inuxlinux'
# sed 's/linux/[&&]/' sedfile.txt
Eat [linuxlinux] drink linux sleep linux
I am using Windows since I was in college.If I have to choose I will choose Windows.
Windows Windows
[linuxlinux] is the best open source OS
Example:3
# sed 's/linux/& and Unix/' sedfile.txt
Eat linux and Unix drink linux sleep linux
I am using Windows since I was in college.If I have to choose I will choose Windows.
Windows Windows
linux and Unix is the best open source OS

To change the position of character with sed

Some times you may also like to change the position of characters in a line. I will show you how to do it by the
following example. As I explained it before you can use any delimiter you want according to your convenience. I
have used here delimiter ( | ).
# sed 's|^\(.\)\(.\)\(.\)\(.\)|\4\3\2\1|' sedfileModify.txt
taElinux drink linux sleep linux
ma I using Linux since I was in college
unilx is the best open source OS

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Making changes to the string with \1, \2, \3

You can make changes to the string. You can replace the string with its double.
In the below example single 'linux' is being replaced with double 'linuxlinux'
# sed 's|\(linux\)|\1\1|' sedfileModify.txt
Eat linuxlinux drink linux sleep linux
I am using Linux since I was in college
linuxlinux is the best open source OS
In the below example the string 'linux' is being replaced with triple 'linuxlinuxlinux'
# sed 's|\(linux\)|\1\1\1|' sedfileModify.txt
Eat linuxlinuxlinux drink linux sleep linux
I am using Linux since I was in college
linuxlinuxlinux is the best open source OS
The following is an another example of how to change the position of word with sed command.
We will be changing the string 'linuxunix' to 'unixlinux'
# cat file4.txt
linuxunix is the best open
source
linuxunix is the best open
source

# sed 's/\(linux\)\(unix\)/\2\1/' file4.txt

unixlinux is the best open source
unixlinux is the best open source

Duplicating a line
You can also duplicate the line where you replaced the string with 'p' flag.
# cat file5.txt How to duplicate a line in unixlinux with sed

# sed 's/unix/linux/p' file5.txt

How to duplicate a line in linuxlinux with
sed
How to duplicate a line in linuxlinux with
sed

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If you don't wish to duplicate a line and only want to print the replaced line use the '-n' option with sed command.
See the example given below.
# sed -n 's/unix/linux/p'
file5.txt

How to replace string on a particular line

To replace a string on a particular line you can assign the line number to where you want to replace. Lets see by an
example.
# sed '2 s/unix/linux/' file4.txt
linuxunix is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open
source

Some times you may want to replace in range of lines. The syntax to replace string in range of line is.
# sed '1,4 s/unix/linux/' file4.txt
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxunix is the best open source
linuxunix is the best open source

Using $ with the sed command

$ option is very useful when you want to replace the string from particular line to the last line. $ sign indicates the
last line where the string will be replaced. See the example given below where the string is being replaced from the
third line to last line.
# sed '3,$ s/unix/linux/' file4.txt
linuxunix is the best open source
linuxunix is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source
linuxlinux is the best open source

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How to delete line by sed

There is also an option of deleting lines with sed by using the option 'd'.
This below command will delete the third line from the file.
Example:1
# sed '3 d'
file4.txt
Example:2
The below command will delete range of lines. From line number 3 to the last line will be deleted.
# sed '3,$ d'
file4.txt

You can also use sed command to delete lines from files in other methods. Look at the example given.
# cat file1.txt
I have been using Windows since I was in college.
Windows is my favourite

To delete all the lines from 'file1.txt' use the below command as given.
# cat file1.txt | sed
'd'
Similarly to delete the particular line you can use '1d' to delete first line or '2d' to delete second line etc. with sed.
# cat file1.txt | sed
'1d'
Windows is my favourite

To search any string in a file

To search any string in a line you can use the sed command in a following way.
# sed -n '/linux/p'
file4.txt

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Sed to print duplicate lines

If you want to print a duplicate line for each line you can use the option 'p'.
# sed 'p'
file4.txt

How to run multiple sed commands

Some times you may also want to run multiple sed commands. In that case you may use the option 'e'.
# sed -e 's/linux/unix/' -e 's/college/school/'
sedfileModify.txt
Eat unix drink linux sleep linux
I am using Linux since I was in
school
unix is the best open source OS

Sed to print line which doesn't match

By using option !p , sed gives you the power of excluding lines matched with the pattern. Let's get into a bit detail
here.
The given sed example will print all the lines which matches pattern 'board'.
$ sed -n '/board/p'
testfile.txt
Now to exclude all the lines which matches pattern 'board", use '!p' option.
$ sed -n '/board/!p'
testfile.txt

Replacing a line with a new line by sed

How about replacing a whole line with a new line. You can replace the whole line with the option 'c'.
Example:

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# cat
file6.txt
Windows is my favourite OS
After executing the below command the below change has occurred. The command will first search and match with
the string 'Windows' then it will replace the whole line with a new line.
# sed '/Windows/ c "Linux and Unix is my favourite OS"'
file6.txt
"Linux and Unix is my favourite
OS"

Sed command in UNIX to add new line

With sed you can add new line when the match is found. You can add line either after the match or before the match
# cat
filenewLine.txt

This is an example of sed in linux for adding new

line

The option 'i' is used to add line before match is found.

# sed '/linux/ i Sed to add line before match'
filenewLine.txt
Sed to add line before match
This is an example of sed in linux for adding new
line
Similarly option 'a' can be used to add line after the match is found.
# sed '/linux/ a Sed to add line after match'
filenewLine.txt
This is an example of sed in linux for adding new
line
Sed to add line after match

Transforming case of letters

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With 'y' option you can tranform the case of letter. You can change from upper case to lower case or lower to upper
case.
# cat fileTransform.txt
transforming into uppercase by sed
command.

# sed 'y/t/T/' fileTransform.txt

Transforming inTo uppercase by sed
command.

Removing blank lines

You can remove blank lines within a file with the option ' d'.
# cat fileTransform.txt
Sed command used to remove blank
lines.
This is a new line

With the below command the blank space between the two lines has been removed.
# sed '/^ *$/d' fileTransform.txt
Sed command to remove blank
lines.
This is a new line .

Sed script
You can also make a script file for sed to run a command. You can put the command into a script and run it as
follows.
The following is a script to replace the string Windows to Unix

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# vi
script.sed

#!/bin/sed -f
s/Windows/Unix/g
~
~
~

You have to run the script as given

# sed -f script.sed file1.txt
I have been using Unix since I was in
college.
Unix is my favourite

How to replace a line starting with a space into a new line

Sed is very handy if you want to remove the new line which starts with a space, and add it to the first line.
Create a script as follows.
# vi replace_script.sed
#!/bin/sed -f
N
s/\n / /

The file5.txt file has some lines which have unnecessary spaces before the line starts.
# cat file5.txt
Linux is my favourie,
I love to work on linux.
Sed is a command
which can be used for replacing
string.
Sed is also
used in Unix.
Below is the command when executes removes the spaces and adding the line to the first line.

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# sed -f replace_script.sed file5.txt

Linux is my favourie, I love to work on linux.
Sed is a command which can be used for replacing
string.
Sed is also used in Unix.

Sed --version
With --version option you can find out current version of sed.
# sed -version
Sed -h Help
The option -h or --help with sed command will show you the summary of the options that you can use with sed.
# sed h
or
# sed -help

Man sed (Man page of sed command)

In this section we will discuss about some flags or options given in the man page of sed command.

Sed f example
With the 'f' option we can specify the contents of the file to be executed as a process. Lets see an example to make
it more clear.
Create a file 'filetest.txt' and save it as given.
$ vi filetest.txt
/DT/{s//'"$(date +%F,%T)"'/;s/.*/echo
'&'/e}
The following sed command will execute the script given in the 'file testfile.txt'. Notice the option 'f' is used here.

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$ echo "Now the Date and Time is DT" | sed -f

testfile.txt
Now the Date and Time is 2016-10-17,02:48:06

Sed follow symlinks

Suppose there is a symlink file and if you do not use option --follow-symlinks, then sed will destroy the link file and
create a regular file in place of link file.So, be very careful when editing any symbolic link file.
The below sed command example will find the match and replace the word in a symlink file without destroying the
link.
$ sed --follow-symlinks 's/match/replace/g'
filename.txt
When you become sure about the outcoming of the command, then use option 'i' for in-place editing in the file.
$ sed --follow-symlinks -i 's/match/replace/g'
filename.txt

Sed i option example

In many previous examples this option has been explained. So I will just summarize it here. It is used to in-place
editing in the file. In the below example it will find the string 'match_word' and replace it with the string 'replace_word'
in the 'myfile.txt' file.
$ sed -i 's/match_word/replace_word/g'
myfile.txt

Sed binary mode (--binary) or -b

If you look into the man page of the sed command you will see that '--binary option is used for compatibity with
WIN32/CYGWIN/MSDOS/EMX.
The -binary option will instruct the sed command to open file in binary mode.
If you are using CYGWIN sed in Windows, try to use the following sed substitution example with a file. It will convert
the ending of the line feed to UNIX(\n).
$ sed 's/any_string/replace/
filename
Thus, use the below sed command to open input file in binary mode.

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$ sed -b 's/any_string/replace/
filename

Sed line wrap (-l)

It states desired line-wrap for the list 'l' command. Late me make it more clear by an example.
The contents of a file myfile.txt is.
$ cat myfile.txt
LINUX UNIX SED GENTOO REDHAT UBUNTU
CENTOS
Let's list the content of the file by sed command with list 'l' option.
$ sed 'l' myfile.txt
$
LINUX UNIX SED GENTOO REDHAT UBUNTU
CENTOS$
LINUX UNIX SED GENTOO REDHAT UBUNTU CENTOS
It is also printing the duplicate content. Suppress it by '-n' option and lets use the command again.
$ sed -n 'l' myfile.txt
$
LINUX UNIX SED GENTOO REDHAT UBUNTU
CENTOS$
Did you see the output, the duplicate line is supressed here. Now we will line-wrap 5 length character as given
below.
$ sed -n -l 5 'l'
myfile.txt
$
LINU\
X UN\
IX S\
ED G\
ENTO\
O RE\
DHAT\
UBU\
NTU \
CENT\
OS$

Sed unbuffered (-u)

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When sed is not printing anything on terminal that means it is working in buffered mode. By default sed first packs
its buffer before processing on terminal, it increases the amount of data processing.If you want you can instruct the
sed command to work in unbuffered mode with the sed option '-u'. The syntax of using the 'u' option with sed
command is given below. You won't see any difference when processing small number of data with this command.
$ sed -u 's\find\replace\g'
filename

Sed --separate (-s)

The '-s' option or 'separate' allows the sed command to treat each files differently when executing. For example I
want to print line number 2 of the two files. So, this is how we will execute the command.
$ sed -n '2p' sed_file
myfile
But wait a minute there is a problem in the above command. It will print only the line number 2 of the first file. But
why is it so?
Because by default sed concatenate all the files. In this case sed prints line number 2 of the file after concatenation.
Therefore, to treat each file differently, we need to use a separator that is '-s' option with sed.
Now execute the following on your terminal. It will print line number 2 of both the files.
$ sed -n -s '2p' sed_file
myfile

Sed with c\
With the option 'c\' you can delete lines of matching word. For example the below sed example will delete the line
matching with the pattern.
$ sed '/matched_pattern/c\'
myfile
I haven't found any other use of option 'c\' other than that. Instead of using 'c\' to delete a line I would rather advice
you to use 'd' with sed to delete lines. I have already described it of how to use 'd' option with sed in the previous
section of this article.

Sed append (a\)

This option is used to append a line after a matching word. The syntax is
$ sed '/match_word/a\Add this line'
myfile.txt

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So the above sed command will append a new line "Add this line" after the matched word.

Sed q command for exit

The sed option q is used to quit after certain task is reached. You can use it to read lines but you cannot use it to
read range of lines.
$ sed '4 q'
myfile
It will read lines from 1 to 4 then quit.
if you use the command as given below, it will throw error.
$ sed '2,3 q'
myfile
sed: -e expression #1, char 5: command only uses one address

Sed w flag
You can write your changes to another file on runtime with 'w'.
$ sed 's\this\that\w change'
<myfile.txt
The above command is a simple search and replace sed command example. In the example 'this' is being replaced
by 'that'. At the same time a file called 'change' will be created where your modified data will be saved.

Using flag y
Change from uppercase to lowercase or lowercase to uppercase With the option 'y'. See the example below.
$ sed 'y/ABCD/abcd/'
filename
It will substitute (uppercase to lowercase) all the character it will find from A through D.

Sed branching (Labels)

There are two levels used by sed to control the flow of the sed command.
b= It is used for unconditional branching in sed. The b command is used to jump to a level where level is designated
as :anylabelname

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t= It is used for conditional branching in sed. It is vey similar to b. However, in this case jumping to level with 't' occur
only if the execution is completed fully till the last statement in the file.
I am not going in detail here. However I would try to make your concept clear about these branching usage in sed.
Label b
'b' as said before, it is used for unconditional branching. It works simmilar to goto statement in other programming
languages. Lets see an easy example to understand the concept clearly.
Create a file called 'label.txt'.
$ vi label.txt
Statement to test sed command
learn and understand the
examples
this will test branching label b
Now run this command and see the output.
$ sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/, /g'
label.txt
Statement to test sed command, learn and understand the examples, this will test branching label b,
Lets see what's happening here in this command!!. The example has been taken from one of the stackoverflow
example. I found it very helpful.
First-- Declared a level ':a'.
Second-- 'N' it reads file line by line and append next line to pattern buffer(pattern space). It is a temporary buffer or
space where the current information is stored.
Third-- '$!ba' Looping back to level 'a' unless reached to the end of the file.
Fourth-- 's/\n/, /g' command of search and replace. replaces every newline in the file with comma (,).
Label t
The option 't' is used with sed for condiotional branching. When you want to execute a level when a condition is
fulfilled in a statement, then you have to use 't' with sed. For example see the below command where level 't' is used
to jump to label when condition is fulfilled. It is a simple example for putting hash tag in the beginning of the line
where pattern 'label' is found.
$ sed -n ':a;/label/s/^/#/; /##/!t a; p'
level.txt
Statement to test sed command
learn and understand the examples
##this will test branching label t
In the above example the command will not execute completely until the hash tag count increases to two.
'^' means beginning of the line.

Tricks of sed command in UNIX and Linux

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Following are some sed command examples which will help you learn some more cool tricks of sed.

Numbering each line of your file

You may want to number each lines in your file. In that case use the below sed command.

$ sed = myfile.txt | sed

'N;s/\n/\t/'

1
2
3
4

Sed
Linux
UNIX
AWK

Counting lines
Below sed example will print the total number of lines present in your files.
$ sed -n '$='
myfile.txt
4

Print lines having 20 or more than 20 characters in a file

If you want to print lines from your file having more than certain characters, then use the below sed command
example.
$ sed -n '/^.\{20\}/p'
myfile.txt

Delete all blank spaces from a file

The below sed examples can be used to delete all blank spaces from your file.
$ sed '/^$/d'
myfile.txt

Print only valid email address from file

If you have files having number of email addresses in them, then the below sed command is very useful to extract
valid email addresses from the file.

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$ sed -nr '/^[^@]+@[^.]+\.com\s*$/p'

myfile.txt

This is it with Sed command in UNIX and Linux examples tutorial. Please give your valuable suggestions.
Also See:
Rsync exclude directory (folder), files in Linux with examples
Open source mail server - set up Rainloop open source mail server

References:
Wikipedia
Sourceforge

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