Manual: ed

ED(1)							User Commands						       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  direc‐
       tory  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 For most purposes, however, it is superseded by full-screen editors.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 
       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.

GNU ed 1.22.4						January 2026						       ED(1)