.Dd Created:2025-10-03|Updated:2025-11-27|
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.Dt ED oh
.Os OpenBSD 7.8 , linux |
.Nm ed
.Nd text editor : usage
.Sh TOC
.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy - It - Sx searching " ".Sy - It - Sx searching "
.It Sx COMMANDS
.It - Sx general
.It - Sx address 
.It - Sx print 
.It - Sx edit 
.It - Sx marks 
.It - Sx files 
.It - Sx searching 
.It - Sx interactive_edit
.It - Sx important
.It - Sx shell_commands
.It Sx SPLIT_LINES
.It Sx SCRIPTING
.It - Sx example
.It Sx SEE ALSO
.El
.ocomm NOTE: this document is based on OpenBSD ed, there may be some differences on GNU ed.
.Sh COMMAND LINE
.obc2
.It -p Ta | specify prompt. Eg.: -p :
.El
.Sh COMMANDS
[range]command
.Ss general
.obc2
.It P Ta | toggle prompt.
.It q Ta | quit. Warns if the buffer has been modified.
.It Q Ta | quit regardless of whether any changes have been made to the buffer.
.It h Ta | explain last error.
.It H Ta | toggle error explanation.
.It u Ta | undoes the last command.
.It = Ta | print total lines.
.El
.Ss address
Most commands require a range on which to be executed. If no range is specified, it defaults to the current range.
.D1 Exceptions: u (undo), z (scroll), h (help messages).
.Bl -column ".Sy - opt "
.It n Ta : 6
.It n,n Ta : 4,5
.It + Ta : next line.
.It - Ta : previous line.
.It \&. Ta : current line.
.It $ Ta : last line.
.It +n Ta : address at n lines after current line.
.It -n Ta : address at n lines before current line.
.It ; Ta : from current line to the end.
.It /pattern/ Ta : next line matching pattern. // repeats last search.
.It ?pattern? Ta : previous line matching pattern. ?? repeats last search.
.El
.Ss print
.Bl -column ".Sy - -opt "
.It p Ta : print addressed lines.
.It n Ta : print addressed lines with line numbers.
.It l Ta : print addressed lines including control and non-printable characters. 
.El
.Ss edit
.Bl -column ".Sy - opt "
.It a Ta : append: start adding text after the range. (Eg.: 4a)
.It i Ta : insert: start adding text before range. (Eg.: 4i)
.It c Ta : change: change the addressed line. (Eg.: 4c)
.It d Ta : delete: deletes range. (Eg.: 4d)
.It m Ta : move: move source range after target range. (Eg.: 4m5 )
.It t Ta : copy (transfer): copy source range after target range. (Eg.: 4t6)
.It j Ta : join: join addressed lines. (Eg.: 4,5j)
.El
.Ss marks
.Bl -column ".Sy - opt "
.It kl Ta : mark an range with a lower-case letter. (Eg.: 4ka)
.It 'l Ta : set current range to the range marked as l. ( Eg.: 'a > will set current range to 4)
.El
.Ss files
.Bl -column ".Sy - [address]w [address] " ".Sy description "
.It e [filename] Ta : edit file, if no file is specified it reloads the current file.
.It E Ta : same as e but discards changes if any.
.It w [file] Ta : writes file. If file is not specified, it writes the current file.
.It [range]w [file] Ta : writes specified range to file or current file if no file is specified.
.It [range]W [file] Ta : same as w but appends to filename if the file exists.
.It % Ta : represents the current file.
.It f Ta : sets/shows the current filename.
.It r [file] Ta : reads file into buffer at the end.
.It [range]r [file] Ta : reads file into buffer after range.
.El
.Ss searching
.Bl -column ".Sy - opt "
.It g Ta : search globally for matches.
.It v Ta : search globally for non-matching lines.
.El
.Ss interactive_edit
Commands G and V work the same as the lower case version, but edits each match interactively.
.Bl -enum -compact
.It
G/re/
.It
Returns the first match.
.It
User edits the match.
.It
ed displays the next match.
.It
The user can edit the match or enter & to repeat the last non-empty command list.
.El
.obdl $ ed -p :
:a
line 1
line 2
line 3
\&.
:G/l/
line 1
s/n/a/
line 2
s/e/o/
line 3
&
:,n
liae 1
lino 2
lino 3
.Ed
.Ss important
.Bl -column ".Sy - opt "
.It s Ta : normally, substitution is called with /pattern/, but any character can be used (Eg.: |pattern| or @pattern@).
.D1 this is useful when substituting paths or variables.
.It z[n] Ta : scroll.
.obdi if n is specified, scroll the number of lines specified by n.
.oit If n is not specified and zn has been run before, remember the number of lines used before.
.oit if n is not specified and zn has not been run before, scroll the number of lines determined by the terminal size.
.oit n: add n to show line numbers. (Eg.: z5n)
.El
.El
.Ss shell_commands
The following commands can be used with shell commands:
.obc o write_addressed_Lines_Into_command desc
.It e Ta : edit output of command Ta : Li e !command
.It r Ta : read output of command into buffer Ta : Li [range]r !command
.It w Ta : write addressed lines into command. Ta : Li [range]w !command
.El
.obdl $ ed -p :
:e !ls
:,n
dir1
dir2
:r !ls dir1
:,n
dir1
dir2
file1
:w !xargs -n1 echo
dir1
dir2
file1
.Ed
.Sh SPLIT_LINES
.obdl $ ed t
a
hello bye
\&.
w
10
w !awk 'sub("o ","o\en",$0);' > %
e
10
,n
hello
bye
.Ed
.Sh SCRIPTING
.onote NOTE: It's important to always have the . and w on any interactive commands.
.D1 To add a \&. on a script without ending the input, enter \e\&. and then substitute the \e\ :
.Li ,s@^\e\e\&.$@\&.@
.Ss example
.obdl $ ed script
a
a
this line is appended
\e\&.
w
\&.
,s@^\e\e\&.$@\&.@
w
q
$ cat script
a
this line is appended
\&.
w
$ cat test.txt
line 1
$ ed - test.txt < script
$ cat test.txt
line 1
this line is appended
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.opsy OpenBSD manpages:
.Xr ed 1
.El
.Ss links
.obc2
.It - Lk https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2018-12-04-fun-splitting-line.html Solene - ed split lines
.It - Lk https://github.com/ibara/oed Linux port - OpenBSD ed at GitHub
.It - Lk https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/ed.html GNU ed
.It - Lk http://sam.cat-v.org/ sam - multi-file text editor
.It - Lk https://edbrowse.org/ Edbrowse, a Command Line Editor Browser 
.It - Lk http://man.cat-v.org/unix-1st/1/ed man.cat-v ed(1) - Unix First Edition Manual Page
.It - https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/Detailed-ed.html GNUed Detailed ed (Comparing and Merging Files)
.It - Lk https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/Example-ed.html Example ed (Comparing and Merging Files)
.It - Lk https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/ed-Scripts.html ed Scripts (Comparing and Merging Files)
.It - Lk https://www.unix.com/shell-programming-and-scripting/233897-ed-command-execution-script-file.html unix.com - Ed command execution in script file
.El
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
.Xr ohazot oh |
.Xr about oh |
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.Aq Mt admin@ohazot.com