S2P(1)                 Perl Programmers Reference Guide                 S2P(1)



NAME
       psed - a stream editor

SYNOPSIS
          psed [-an] script [file ...]
          psed [-an] [-e script] [-f script-file] [file ...]

          s2p  [-an] [-e script] [-f script-file]

DESCRIPTION
       A stream editor reads the input stream consisting of the specified
       files (or standard input, if none are given), processes is line by line
       by applying a script consisting of edit commands, and writes resulting
       lines to standard output. The filename '"-"' may be used to read
       standard input.

       The edit script is composed from arguments of -e options and script-
       files, in the given order. A single script argument may be specified as
       the first parameter.

       If this program is invoked with the name s2p, it will act as a sed-to-
       Perl translator. See "SED SCRIPT TRANSLATION".

       sed returns an exit code of 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

OPTIONS
       -a  A file specified as argument to the w edit command is by default
           opened before input processing starts. Using -a, opening of such
           files is delayed until the first line is actually written to the
           file.

       -e script
           The editing commands defined by script are appended to the script.
           Multiple commands must be separated by newlines.

       -f script-file
           Editing commands from the specified script-file are read and
           appended to the script.

       -n  By default, a line is written to standard output after the editing
           script has been applied to it. The -n option suppresses automatic
           printing.

COMMANDS
       sed command syntax is defined as

          [address[,address]][!]function[argument]

       with whitespace being permitted before or after addresses, and between
       the function character and the argument. The addresses and the address
       inverter ("!") are used to restrict the application of a command to the
       selected line(s) of input.

       Each command must be on a line of its own, except where noted in the
       synopses below.

       The edit cycle performed on each input line consist of reading the line
       (without its trailing newline character) into the pattern space,
       applying the applicable commands of the edit script, writing the final
       contents of the pattern space and a newline to the standard output.  A
       hold space is provided for saving the contents of the pattern space for
       later use.

   Addresses
       A sed address is either a line number or a pattern, which may be
       combined arbitrarily to construct ranges. Lines are numbered across all
       input files.

       Any address may be followed by an exclamation mark ('"!"'), selecting
       all lines not matching that address.

       number
           The line with the given number is selected.

       $   A dollar sign ("$") is the line number of the last line of the
           input stream.

       /regular expression/
           A pattern address is a basic regular expression (see "BASIC REGULAR
           EXPRESSIONS"), between the delimiting character "/".  Any other
           character except "\" or newline may be used to delimit a pattern
           address when the initial delimiter is prefixed with a backslash
           ('"\"').

       If no address is given, the command selects every line.

       If one address is given, it selects the line (or lines) matching the
       address.

       Two addresses select a range that begins whenever the first address
       matches, and ends (including that line) when the second address
       matches.  If the first (second) address is a matching pattern, the
       second address is not applied to the very same line to determine the
       end of the range. Likewise, if the second address is a matching
       pattern, the first address is not applied to the very same line to
       determine the begin of another range. If both addresses are line
       numbers, and the second line number is less than the first line number,
       then only the first line is selected.

   Functions
       The maximum permitted number of addresses is indicated with each
       function synopsis below.

       The argument text consists of one or more lines following the command.
       Embedded newlines in text must be preceded with a backslash.  Other
       backslashes in text are deleted and the following character is taken
       literally.

       [1addr]a\ text
           Write text (which must start on the line following the command) to
           standard output immediately before reading the next line of input,
           either by executing the N function or by beginning a new cycle.

       [2addr]b [label]
           Branch to the : function with the specified label. If no label is
           given, branch to the end of the script.

       [2addr]c\ text
           The line, or range of lines, selected by the address is deleted.
           The text (which must start on the line following the command) is
           written to standard output. With an address range, this occurs at
           the end of the range.

       [2addr]d
           Deletes the pattern space and starts the next cycle.

       [2addr]D
           Deletes the pattern space through the first embedded newline or to
           the end.  If the pattern space becomes empty, a new cycle is
           started, otherwise execution of the script is restarted.

       [2addr]g
           Replace the contents of the pattern space with the hold space.

       [2addr]G
           Append a newline and the contents of the hold space to the pattern
           space.

       [2addr]h
           Replace the contents of the hold space with the pattern space.

       [2addr]H
           Append a newline and the contents of the pattern space to the hold
           space.

       [1addr]i\ text
           Write the text (which must start on the line following the command)
           to standard output.

       [2addr]l
           Print the contents of the pattern space: non-printable characters
           are shown in C-style escaped form; long lines are split and have a
           trailing ^'"\"' at the point of the split; the true end of a line
           is marked with a '"$"'. Escapes are: '\a', '\t', '\n', '\f', '\r',
           '\e' for BEL, HT, LF, FF, CR, ESC, respectively, and '\' followed
           by a three-digit octal number for all other non-printable
           characters.

       [2addr]n
           If automatic printing is enabled, write the pattern space to the
           standard output. Replace the pattern space with the next line of
           input. If there is no more input, processing is terminated.

       [2addr]N
           Append a newline and the next line of input to the pattern space.
           If there is no more input, processing is terminated.

       [2addr]p
           Print the pattern space to the standard output. (Use the -n option
           to suppress automatic printing at the end of a cycle if you want to
           avoid double printing of lines.)

       [2addr]P
           Prints the pattern space through the first embedded newline or to
           the end.

       [1addr]q
           Branch to the end of the script and quit without starting a new
           cycle.

       [1addr]r file
           Copy the contents of the file to standard output immediately before
           the next attempt to read a line of input. Any error encountered
           while reading file is silently ignored.

       [2addr]s/regular expression/replacement/flags
           Substitute the replacement string for the first substring in the
           pattern space that matches the regular expression.  Any character
           other than backslash or newline can be used instead of a slash to
           delimit the regular expression and the replacement.  To use the
           delimiter as a literal character within the regular expression and
           the replacement, precede the character by a backslash ('"\"').

           Literal newlines may be embedded in the replacement string by
           preceding a newline with a backslash.

           Within the replacement, an ampersand ('"&"') is replaced by the
           string matching the regular expression. The strings '"\1"' through
           '"\9"' are replaced by the corresponding subpattern (see "BASIC
           REGULAR EXPRESSIONS").  To get a literal '"&"' or '"\"' in the
           replacement text, precede it by a backslash.

           The following flags modify the behaviour of the s command:

           g       The replacement is performed for all matching, non-
                   overlapping substrings of the pattern space.

           1..9    Replace only the n-th matching substring of the pattern
                   space.

           p       If the substitution was made, print the new value of the
                   pattern space.

           w file  If the substitution was made, write the new value of the
                   pattern space to the specified file.

       [2addr]t [label]
           Branch to the : function with the specified label if any s
           substitutions have been made since the most recent reading of an
           input line or execution of a t function. If no label is given,
           branch to the end of the script.

       [2addr]w file
           The contents of the pattern space are written to the file.

       [2addr]x
           Swap the contents of the pattern space and the hold space.

       [2addr]y/string1/string2/
           In the pattern space, replace all characters occurring in string1
           by the character at the corresponding position in string2. It is
           possible to use any character (other than a backslash or newline)
           instead of a slash to delimit the strings.  Within string1 and
           string2, a backslash followed by any character other than a newline
           is that literal character, and a backslash followed by an 'n' is
           replaced by a newline character.

       [1addr]=
           Prints the current line number on the standard output.

       [0addr]: [label]
           The command specifies the position of the label. It has no other
           effect.

       [2addr]{ [command]
       [0addr]}
           These two commands begin and end a command list. The first command
           may be given on the same line as the opening { command. The
           commands within the list are jointly selected by the address(es)
           given on the { command (but may still have individual addresses).

       [0addr]# [comment]
           The entire line is ignored (treated as a comment). If, however, the
           first two characters in the script are '"#n"', automatic printing
           of output is suppressed, as if the -n option were given on the
           command line.

BASIC REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
       A Basic Regular Expression (BRE), as defined in POSIX 1003.2, consists
       of atoms, for matching parts of a string, and bounds, specifying
       repetitions of a preceding atom.

   Atoms
       The possible atoms of a BRE are: ., matching any single character; ^
       and $, matching the null string at the beginning or end of a string,
       respectively; a bracket expressions, enclosed in [ and ] (see below);
       and any single character with no other significance (matching that
       character). A \ before one of: ., ^, $, [, *, \, matching the character
       after the backslash. A sequence of atoms enclosed in \( and \) becomes
       an atom and establishes the target for a backreference, consisting of
       the substring that actually matches the enclosed atoms.  Finally, \
       followed by one of the digits 0 through 9 is a backreference.

       A ^ that is not first, or a $ that is not last does not have a special
       significance and need not be preceded by a backslash to become literal.
       The same is true for a ], that does not terminate a bracket expression.

       An unescaped backslash cannot be last in a BRE.

   Bounds
       The BRE bounds are: *, specifying 0 or more matches of the preceding
       atom; \{count\}, specifying that many repetitions; \{minimum,\}, giving
       a lower limit; and \{minimum,maximum\} finally defines a lower and
       upper bound.

       A bound appearing as the first item in a BRE is taken literally.

   Bracket Expressions
       A bracket expression is a list of characters, character ranges and
       character classes enclosed in [ and ] and matches any single character
       from the represented set of characters.

       A character range is written as two characters separated by - and
       represents all characters (according to the character collating
       sequence) that are not less than the first and not greater than the
       second.  (Ranges are very collating-sequence-dependent, and portable
       programs should avoid relying on them.)

       A character class is one of the class names

          alnum     digit     punct
          alpha     graph     space
          blank     lower     upper
          cntrl     print     xdigit

       enclosed in [: and :] and represents the set of characters as defined
       in ctype(3).

       If the first character after [ is ^, the sense of matching is inverted.

       To include a literal '"^"', place it anywhere else but first. To
       include a literal '"]"' place it first or immediately after an initial
       ^. To include a literal '"-"' make it the first (or second after ^) or
       last character, or the second endpoint of a range.

       The special bracket expression constructs "[[:<:]]" and "[[:>:]]" match
       the null string at the beginning and end of a word respectively.  (Note
       that neither is identical to Perl's '\b' atom.)

   Additional Atoms
       Since some sed implementations provide additional regular expression
       atoms (not defined in POSIX 1003.2), psed is capable of translating the
       following backslash escapes:

       \< This is the same as "[[:>:]]".
       \> This is the same as "[[:<:]]".
       \w This is an abbreviation for "[[:alnum:]_]".
       \W This is an abbreviation for "[^[:alnum:]_]".
       \y Match the empty string at a word boundary.
       \B Match the empty string between any two either word or non-word
       characters.

       To enable this feature, the environment variable PSEDEXTBRE must be set
       to a string containing the requested characters, e.g.:
       "PSEDEXTBRE='<>wW'".

ENVIRONMENT
       The environment variable "PSEDEXTBRE" may be set to extend BREs.  See
       "Additional Atoms".

DIAGNOSTICS
       ambiguous translation for character '%s' in 'y' command
           The indicated character appears twice, with different translations.

       '[' cannot be last in pattern
           A '[' in a BRE indicates the beginning of a bracket expression.

       '\' cannot be last in pattern
           A '\' in a BRE is used to make the subsequent character literal.

       '\' cannot be last in substitution
           A '\' in a substitution string is used to make the subsequent
           character literal.

       conflicting flags '%s'
           In an s command, either the 'g' flag and an n-th occurrence flag,
           or multiple n-th occurrence flags are specified. Note that only the
           digits ^'1' through '9' are permitted.

       duplicate label %s (first defined at %s)
       excess address(es)
           The command has more than the permitted number of addresses.

       extra characters after command (%s)
       illegal option '%s'
       improper delimiter in s command
           The BRE and substitution may not be delimited with '\' or newline.

       invalid address after ','
       invalid backreference (%s)
           The specified backreference number exceeds the number of
           backreferences in the BRE.

       invalid repeat clause '\{%s\}'
           The repeat clause does not contain a valid integer value, or pair
           of values.

       malformed regex, 1st address
       malformed regex, 2nd address
       malformed regular expression
       malformed substitution expression
       malformed 'y' command argument
           The first or second string of a y command  is syntactically
           incorrect.

       maximum less than minimum in '\{%s\}'
       no script command given
           There must be at least one -e or one -f option specifying a script
           or script file.

       '\' not valid as delimiter in 'y' command
       option -e requires an argument
       option -f requires an argument
       's' command requires argument
       start of unterminated '{'
       string lengths in 'y' command differ
           The translation table strings in a y command must have equal
           lengths.

       undefined label '%s'
       unexpected '}'
           A } command without a preceding { command was encountered.

       unexpected end of script
           The end of the script was reached although a text line after a a, c
           or i command indicated another line.

       unknown command '%s'
       unterminated '['
           A BRE contains an unterminated bracket expression.

       unterminated '\('
           A BRE contains an unterminated backreference.

       '\{' without closing '\}'
           A BRE contains an unterminated bounds specification.

       '\)' without preceding '\('
       'y' command requires argument

EXAMPLE
       The basic material for the preceding section was generated by running
       the sed script

          #no autoprint
          s/^.*Warn( *"\([^"]*\)".*$/\1/
          t process
          b
          :process
          s/$!/%s/g
          s/$[_[:alnum:]]\{1,\}/%s/g
          s/\\\\/\\/g
          s/^/=item /
          p

       on the program's own text, and piping the output into "sort -u".

SED SCRIPT TRANSLATION
       If this program is invoked with the name s2p it will act as a sed-to-
       Perl translator. After option processing (all other arguments are
       ignored), a Perl program is printed on standard output, which will
       process the input stream (as read from all arguments) in the way
       defined by the sed script and the option setting used for the
       translation.

SEE ALSO
       perl(1), re_format(7)

BUGS
       The l command will show escape characters (ESC) as '"\e"', but a
       vertical tab (VT) in octal.

       Trailing spaces are truncated from labels in :, t and b commands.

       The meaning of an empty regular expression ('"//"'), as defined by sed,
       is "the last pattern used, at run time". This deviates from the Perl
       interpretation, which will re-use the "last last successfully executed
       regular expression". Since keeping track of pattern usage would create
       terribly cluttered code, and differences would only appear in obscure
       context (where other sed implementations appear to deviate, too), the
       Perl semantics was adopted. Note that common usage of this feature,
       such as in "/abc/s//xyz/", will work as expected.

       Collating elements (of bracket expressions in BREs) are not
       implemented.

STANDARDS
       This sed implementation conforms to the IEEE Std1003.2-1992 ("POSIX.2")
       definition of sed, and is compatible with the OpenBSD implementation,
       except where otherwise noted (see "BUGS").

AUTHOR
       This Perl implementation of sed was written by Wolfgang Laun,
       Wolfgang.Laun@alcatel.at.

COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
       This program is free and open software. You may use, modify,
       distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any
       way you wish, provided you do not restrict others from doing the same.



perl v5.20.2                      2016-02-26                            S2P(1)
