tldr/pages/common/ed.md

ed

The original Unix text editor.

• Start ed, editing an empty document (which can be saved as a new file in the current directory):

ed

• Start ed, editing an empty document, with : as a command prompt indicator:

ed -p :

• Start ed editing an existing file (this shows the byte count of the loaded file):

ed -p : {{path/to/file}}

• Toggle the printing of error explanations. (By default, explanations are not printed and only a ? appears):

H

• Add text to the current document. Mark completion by entering a period by itself in a new line:

a<Enter>{{text_to_insert}}<Enter>.

• Print the entire document (, is a shortcut to the range 1,$ which covers the start to the end of the document):

,p

• Write the current document to a new file (the filename can be omitted if ed was called with an existing file):

w {{filename}}

• Quit ed:

q