Attempt to match regexp against the pattern space. If success‐
ful, replace that portion matched with replacement. The replace‐
ment may contain the special character & to refer to that portion
of the pattern space which matched, and the special escapes \1
through \9 to refer to the corresponding matching sub‐expressions
in the regexp.
t label
If a s/// has done a successful substitution since the last input
line was read and since the last t or T command, then branch to
label; if label is omitted, branch to end of script.
T label
If no s/// has done a successful substitution since the last in‐
put line was read and since the last t or T command, then branch
to label; if label is omitted, branch to end of script. This is
a GNU extension.
w filename
Write the current pattern space to filename.
W filename
Write the first line of the current pattern space to filename.
This is a GNU extension.
x Exchange the contents of the hold and pattern spaces.
y/source/dest/
Transliterate the characters in the pattern space which appear in
source to the corresponding character in dest.
Addresses
Sed commands can be given with no addresses, in which case the command
will be executed for all input lines; with one address, in which case
the command will only be executed for input lines which match that ad‐
dress; or with two addresses, in which case the command will be executed
for all input lines which match the inclusive range of lines starting
from the first address and continuing to the second address. Three
things to note about address ranges: the syntax is addr1,addr2 (i.e.,
the addresses are separated by a comma); the line which addr1 matched
will always be accepted, even if addr2 selects an earlier line; and if
addr2 is a regexp, it will not be tested against the line that addr1
matched.
After the address (or address‐range), and before the command, a ! may
be inserted, which specifies that the command shall only be executed if
the address (or address‐range) does not match.
The following address types are supported:
number Match only the specified line number (which increments cumula‐
tively across files, unless the -s option is specified on the
command line).
first~step
Match every step’th line starting with line first. For example,
‘‘sed -n 1~2p’’ will print all the odd‐numbered lines in the in‐