ED(1)

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 For most purposes, however, it is superseded by full-screen editors.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 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 © 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.