NAME
ed - line-oriented text editor
SYNOPSIS
ed [options] [[+line] file]
DESCRIPTION
GNU ed is a line-oriented text editor. It is used to create, display, modify and otherwise manipulate text files, both interactively and via shell scripts. A restricted version of ed, red, can only edit files in the current directory and cannot execute shell commands. Ed is the 'standard' text editor in the sense that it is the original editor for Unix, and thus widely available. For most purposes, however, it is superseded by full-screen editors.
The file name may be preceded by '+line', '+/RE', or '+?RE' to set the current line to the line number specified or to the first or last line matching the regular expression 'RE'.
Start edit by reading in 'file' if given. If 'file' begins with a '!', read output of shell command.
The environment variable LINES can be used to set the initial window size.
OPTIONS
- -h, --help
-
display this help and exit
- -V, --version
-
output version information and exit
- -E, --extended-regexp
-
use extended regular expressions
- -G, --traditional
-
run in compatibility mode
- -l, --loose-exit-status
-
exit with 0 status even if a command fails
- -p, --prompt=STRING
-
use STRING as an interactive prompt
- -q, --quiet, --silent
-
suppress diagnostics written to stderr
- -r, --restricted
-
run in restricted mode
- -s, --script
-
suppress byte counts and '!' prompt
- -v, --verbose
-
be verbose; equivalent to the 'H' command
- --strip-trailing-cr
-
strip carriage returns at end of text lines
- --unsafe-names
-
allow control characters in file names
EXIT STATUS
0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems (invalid command-line options, memory exhausted, command failed, etc), 2 for problems with the input file (file not found, buffer modified, I/O errors), 3 for an internal consistency error (e.g., bug) which caused ed to panic.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to [email protected]
Ed home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/ed/ed.html
General help using GNU software: http://www.gnu.org/gethelp
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1994 Andrew L. Moore.
Copyright © 2026 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for ed is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and ed programs are properly installed at your site, the command
-
info ed
should give you access to the complete manual.