ED(1) GNU ed 1.22.3 ED(1)
User Commands User Commands
November 2025
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superseded by full-screen editors.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
- 1 - Formatted: December 1, 2025
ED(1) GNU ed 1.22.3 ED(1)
User Commands User Commands
November 2025
-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 bug-ed@gnu.org
Ed home page: http://www.gnu.org/software/ed/ed.html
General help using GNU software: http://www.gnu.org/gethelp
COPYRIGHT
Copyright c 1994 Andrew L. Moore.
Copyright c 2025 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.
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