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sed — GNU stream editor for filtering and transforming text. See also: `awk`, `ed`. More information: <htt

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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linux

Problem

How to use the sed command: GNU stream editor for filtering and transforming text. See also: awk, ed. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html>.

Solution

sed — GNU stream editor for filtering and transforming text. See also: awk, ed. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html>.

[s]ubstitute all occurrences of "apple" with "mango" on all lines, print to stdout:

{{command}} | sed 's/apple/mango/g'

Replace "apple" with "mango" in-place in a file (overwriting original file):

sed {{[-i|--in-place]}} 's/apple/mango/g' {{path/to/file}}

Run multiple substitutions in one command:

{{command}} | sed -e '{{s/apple/mango/g}}' -e '{{s/orange/lime/g}}'

Use a custom delimiter (useful when the pattern contains slashes):

{{command}} | sed '{{s#////#____#g}}'

[d]elete lines 1 to 5 of a file and back up the original file with a .orig extension:

sed {{[-i|--in-place=]}}.orig '1,5d' {{path/to/file}}

[p]rint only the first line to stdout:

{{command}} | sed {{[-n|--quiet]}} '1p'

[i]nsert a new line at the beginning of a file, overwriting the original file:

sed {{[-i|--in-place]}} '1i\your new line text\' {{path/to/file}}

Delete blank lines (with or without spaces/tabs) from a file, overwriting the original file:

sed {{[-i|--in-place]}} '/^[[:space:]]*$/d' {{path/to/file}}

Code Snippets

[s]ubstitute all occurrences of "apple" with "mango" on all lines, print to `stdout`

{{command}} | sed 's/apple/mango/g'

Replace "apple" with "mango" in-place in a file (overwriting original file)

sed {{[-i|--in-place]}} 's/apple/mango/g' {{path/to/file}}

Run multiple substitutions in one command

{{command}} | sed -e '{{s/apple/mango/g}}' -e '{{s/orange/lime/g}}'

Use a custom delimiter (useful when the pattern contains slashes)

{{command}} | sed '{{s#////#____#g}}'

[d]elete lines 1 to 5 of a file and back up the original file with a `.orig` extension

sed {{[-i|--in-place=]}}.orig '1,5d' {{path/to/file}}

Context

tldr-pages: linux/sed

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