---
name: "fai-sed"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "fai-client"
version: "6.4.3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fai-sed"
---

# fai-sed(1)

call sed on a file but check for changes before writing

## NAME

fai-sed - call sed on a file but check for changes before writing

## SYNOPSIS

**fai-sed** CMD FILE

## DESCRIPTION

Execute a sed script - here called CMD - on FILE but do not overwrite the file if nothing changes. If $target is defined, use it as prefix for the path to FILE.

The exit status 0 indicates success. A nonzero value indicates failure.

## OPTIONS

- **-E**

  If fai-sed changed the file exit with 9 instead of 0.

- **-n**

  Dry run. Print if file would have changed, but do not change it.

## EXAMPLES

$ fai-sed 's/foo/bar/g' /etc/motd

Replace foo with bar in file /etc/motd.

$ fai-sed 's/123/ABC/g; /XXX/d' /etc/motd

Replace 123 with ABC and delete all lines which contain the string XXX.\

## SEE ALSO

This program is part of FAI (Fully Automatic Installation).  See the FAI manual for more information on how to use fai-monitor.  The FAI homepage is https://fai-project.org.

## AUTHOR

Thomas Lange \<lange@cs.uni-koeln.de\>