Command-Line Syntax

The syntax for invoking sed has two forms:

sed [options] 'command' file(s) sed [options] -f scriptfile file(s)

The first form allows you to specify an editing command on the command line, surrounded by single quotes. The second form allows you to specify a scriptfile, a file containing sed commands. If no files are specified, sed reads from standard input.

The following options are recognized:

• -e cmd
• Next argument is an editing command; not needed unless specifying two or more editing commands.
• -f scriptfile
• Next argument is a file containing editing commands.
• -n
• Suppress the default output; sed displays only those lines specified with the p command or with the p flag of the s command.
• -V
• Display version number.
• --quiet
• Same as -n.
• --expression=cmd
• Same as -e.
• --file=file
• Same as -f.
• --help
• Display brief help message with command-line options.
• --silent
• Same as -n.
• --version
• Same as -V.