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The GNU ed line editor

This manual is for GNU ed (version 1.21.1, 24 March 2025).

• Overview: Overview of the ed command

• Introduction to line editing: Getting started with GNU ed
• Invoking ed: Command-line interface
• Argument syntax: By convention, options start with a hyphen
• Line addressing: Specifying lines/ranges in the buffer
• Regular expressions: Patterns for selecting text
• Commands: Commands recognized by GNU ed
• The 's' Command: Substitute command
• Limitations: Intrinsic limits of GNU ed
• Diagnostics: GNU ed error handling
• Problems: Reporting bugs
• GNU Free Documentation License: How you can copy and share this manual

Written by Andrew L. Moore, François Pinard, and Antonio Diaz Diaz Copyright © 1993, 1994, 2006-2025
Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Next: Introduction to line editing, Previous: Top, Up: Top

1 Overview
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 For most purposes, however, it is superseded by full-screen editors
such as GNU Emacs or GNU Moe.

GNU ed is based on the editor algorithm described in Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger's book "Software
Tools in Pascal", Addison-Wesley, 1981.

If invoked with a file argument, then a copy of file is read into the editor's buffer. Changes are made to this
copy and not directly to file itself. Upon quitting ed, any changes not explicitly saved with a 'w' command are
lost. In interactive mode, a non-existing file is reported but does not alter the exit status.

Editing is done in two distinct modes: command and input. When first invoked, ed is in command mode. In
this mode commands are read from the standard input and executed to manipulate the contents of the editor
buffer. A typical command might look like:
 ,s/old/new/g

which replaces all occurences of the string old with new.

When an input command, such as 'a' (append), 'i' (insert) or 'c' (change), is given, ed enters input mode. This
is the primary means of adding text to a file. In this mode, no commands are available; instead, the standard
input is written directly to the editor buffer. A line consists of the text up to and including a <newline>
character. Input mode is terminated by entering a single period ('.') on a line.

Any change made to the buffer sets the modified flag even if the change does not cause a change in the
contents of the buffer; for example 's/a/a/'. Reading an empty file ('r file') or terminating a command
before it makes any change to the buffer ('a<newline>.<newline>') does not change the buffer, and therefore
does not set the modified flag.

All ed commands operate on whole lines or ranges of lines; e.g., the 'd' command deletes lines; the 'm'
command moves lines, and so on. It is possible to modify only a portion of a line by means of replacement,
as in the example above. However even here, the 's' command is applied to whole lines at a time.

In general, ed commands consist of zero or more line addresses, followed by a single character command and
possibly additional parameters; i.e., commands have the structure:
[address[,address]]command[parameters]

The addresses indicate the line or range of lines to be affected by the command. If fewer addresses are given
than the command accepts, then default addresses are supplied.

Next: Invoking ed, Previous: Overview, Up: Top

2 Introduction to line editing

ed was created, along with the Unix operating system, by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. It is the
refinement of its more complex, programmable predecessor, QED, to which Thompson and Ritchie had
already added pattern matching capabilities (see Regular expressions).

For the purposes of this tutorial, a working knowledge of the Unix shell sh and the Unix file system is
recommended, since ed is designed to interact closely with them. (See the bash manual for details about
bash).

The principal difference between line editors and display editors is that display editors provide instant
feedback to user commands, whereas line editors require sometimes lengthy input before any effects are seen.
The advantage of instant feedback, of course, is that if a mistake is made, it can be corrected immediately,
before more damage is done. Editing in ed requires more strategy and forethought; but if you are up to the
task, it can be quite efficient.

Much of the ed command syntax is shared with other Unix utilities.

As with the shell, <RETURN> (the carriage-return key) enters a line of input. So when we speak of
"entering" a command or some text in ed, <RETURN> is implied at the end of each line. Prior to typing
<RETURN>, corrections to the line may be made by typing either <BACKSPACE> to erase characters
backwards, or <CONTROL>-u (i.e., hold the CONTROL key and type u) to erase the whole line.

When ed first opens, it expects to be told what to do but doesn't prompt us like the shell. So let's begin by
telling ed to do so with the <P> (prompt) command:

$ ed
P
*

By default, ed uses asterisk ('*') as command prompt to avoid confusion with the shell command prompt ('$').

We can run Unix shell (sh) commands from inside ed by prefixing them with <!> (exclamation mark, aka
"bang"). For example:
*!date
Mon Jun 26 10:08:41 PDT 2006
!
*!for s in hello world; do echo $s; done
hello
world
!
*

So far, this is no different from running commands in the Unix shell. But let's say we want to edit the output
of a command, or save it to a file. First we must capture the command output to a temporary location called a
buffer where ed can access it. This is done with ed's <r> command (mnemonic: read):
*r !cal -m
137
*

Here ed is telling us that it has just read 137 characters into the editor buffer - i.e., the output of the cal
command, which prints a simple ASCII calendar. To display the buffer contents we issue the <p> (print)
command (not to be confused with the prompt command, which is uppercase!). To indicate the range of lines
in the buffer that should be printed, we prefix the command with <,> (comma) which is shorthand for "the
whole buffer":
*,p
June 2006
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30

Now let's write the buffer contents to a file named 'junk' with the <w> (write) command:

*w junk
137
*

Need we say? It's good practice to frequently write the buffer contents, since unwritten changes to the buffer
will be lost when we exit ed.

The sample sessions below illustrate some basic concepts of line editing with ed. We begin by creating a file,
sonnet, with some help from Shakespeare. As with the shell, all input to ed must be followed by a <newline>
character. Commands beginning with '#' are taken as comments and ignored. Input mode lines that begin with
'#' are just more input.

$ ed
# The 'a' command is for appending text to the editor buffer.
a
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
Roses have thorns, and filvers foutians mud.
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
.
# Entering a single period on a line returns ed to command mode.
# Now write the buffer to the file sonnet and quit:
w sonnet
183
# ed reports the number of characters written.
q
$ ls -l
total 2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 alm 183 Nov 10 01:16 sonnet
$

In the next example, some typos are corrected in the file sonnet.

$ ed sonnet
183
# Begin by printing the buffer to the terminal with the 'p' command.
# The ',' means "all lines".
,p
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
Roses have thorns, and filvers foutians mud.
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
# Select line 2 for editing.
2
Roses have thorns, and filvers foutians mud.
# Use the substitute command, 's', to replace 'filvers' with 'silver',
# and print the result.
s/filvers/silver/p
Roses have thorns, and silver foutians mud.
# And correct the spelling of 'fountains'.
s/utia/untai/p
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud.
w sonnet
183
q
$

Since ed is line-oriented, we have to tell it which line, or range of lines we want to edit. In the example above,
we do this by specifying the line's number, or sequence in the buffer. Alternatively, we could have specified a
unique string in the line, e.g., '/filvers/', where the '/'s delimit the string in question. Subsequent commands
affect only the selected line, a.k.a. the current line. Portions of that line are then replaced with the substitute
command, whose syntax is 's/old/new/'.

Although ed accepts only one command per line, the print command 'p' is an exception, and may be appended
to the end of most commands.

In the next example, a title is added to our sonnet.

$ ed sonnet
183
 a
Sonnet #50
.
,p
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud.
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
Sonnet #50
# The title got appended to the end; we should have used '0a'
# to append "before the first line".
# Move the title to its proper place.
5m0p
Sonnet #50
# The title is now the first line, and the current address has been
# set to the address of this line as well.
,p
Sonnet #50
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud.
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
wq sonnet
195
$

When ed opens a file, the current address is initially set to the address of the last line of that file. Similarly,
the move command 'm' sets the current address to the address of the last line moved.

Related programs or routines are vi(1), sed(1), regex(3), sh(1). Relevant documents are:

Unix User's Manual Supplementary Documents: 12 -- 13

B. W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger: "Software Tools in Pascal", Addison-Wesley, 1981.

Next: Argument syntax, Previous: Introduction to line editing, Up: Top

3 Invoking ed
The format for running ed is:

ed [options] [[+line] file]

red [options] [[+line] file]
ed [options] [[+line] '!command [arguments]']

file specifies the name of a file to read. If file is prefixed with a bang (!), then it is interpreted as a shell
command. In this case, what is read is the standard output of file executed via sh. To read a file whose name
begins with a bang (or a hyphen), prefix the name with ./. The default filename is set to file only if it is not
prefixed with a bang.

The file name may be preceded by '+line' to set the current line to the line number specified. If line exceeds
the number of lines in the file, the current line is set to the last line.

The file name may be preceded by '+/re' to set the current line to the first line matching the regular
expression re, or by '+?re' to set the current line to the last line matching re. If re does not match any line, ed
fails immediately with exit status 1 unless the option -l is specified and standard input is not a regular file.
ed supports the following options: See Argument syntax.

-h
--help
Print an informative help message describing the options and exit.
-V
--version
Print the version number of ed on the standard output and exit. This version number should be included
in all bug reports.
-E
--extended-regexp
Use extended regular expressions instead of the basic regular expressions mandated by POSIX.
-G
--traditional
Forces backwards compatibility. This affects the behavior of the ed commands 'G', 'V', 'f', 'l', 'm', 't', and
'!!'. If the default behavior of these commands does not seem familiar, then try invoking ed with this
switch.
-l
--loose-exit-status
Don't exit with bad status if a command happens to "fail" (for example if a substitution command finds
nothing to replace). This can be useful when ed is invoked as the editor for crontab.
-p string
--prompt=string
Specifies a command prompt string and turns prompting on. Showing the prompt string may be toggled
on and off with the 'P' command.
-q
--quiet
--silent
Suppress diagnostic messages written to standard error.
-r
--restricted
Run in restricted mode. This mode disables editing of files out of the current directory and execution of
shell commands.
-s
--script
Suppress the printing of byte counts by 'e', 'E', 'r', and 'w' commands, and the '!' prompt after a '!'
command. Suppress also the messages "Newline inserted" and "Newline appended". This option does
not suppress diagnostic messages written to standard error (see -q above). -s may be useful if ed's
standard input is from a script.
-v
--verbose
Turn help mode on; print a help message explaining the reason for each '?' notification. This may be
toggled on and off with the 'H' command. Use this option to aid in debugging ed scripts.
--strip-trailing-cr
Strip the carriage returns at the end of text lines in DOS files. CRs are removed only from the CR/LF
(carriage return/line feed) pair ending the line. CRs at other positions in the line, including a CR
finishing an unterminated line, are not removed. The CRs are not restored when saving the buffer to a
file.
--unsafe-names
ed rejects file names containing control characters 1 to 31 unless they are allowed with this option.
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.

Next: Line addressing, Previous: Invoking ed, Up: Top

4 Syntax of command-line arguments

POSIX recommends these conventions for command-line arguments.

• A command-line argument is an option if it begins with a hyphen ('-').

• Option names are single alphanumeric characters.
• Certain options require an argument.
• An option and its argument may or may not appear as separate tokens. (In other words, the whitespace
separating them is optional). Thus, -o foo and -ofoo are equivalent.
• One or more options without arguments, followed by at most one option that takes an argument, may
follow a hyphen in a single token. Thus, -abc is equivalent to -a -b -c.
• Options typically precede other non-option arguments.
• The argument '--' terminates all options; any following arguments are treated as non-option arguments,
even if they begin with a hyphen.
• A token consisting of a single hyphen character is interpreted as an ordinary non-option argument. By
convention, it is used to specify standard input, standard output, or a file named '-'.

GNU adds long options to these conventions:

• A long option consists of two hyphens ('--') followed by a name made of alphanumeric characters and
hyphens. Option names are typically one to three words long, with hyphens to separate words.
Abbreviations can be used for the long option names as long as the abbreviations are unique.
• A long option and its argument may or may not appear as separate tokens. In the latter case they must
be separated by an equal sign '='. Thus, --foo bar and --foo=bar are equivalent.

Next: Regular expressions, Previous: Argument syntax, Up: Top

5 Line addressing
An address represents the number of a line in the buffer. ed maintains a current address which is typically
supplied to commands as the default address when none is specified. When a file is first read, the current
address is set to the address of the last line of the file. In general, the current address is set to the address of
the last line affected by a command.

One exception to the rule that addresses represent line numbers is the address '0' (zero). This means "at the
beginning of the buffer", and is valid wherever it makes sense.

An address range is two addresses separated either by a comma (',') or a semicolon (';'). The value of the first
address in a range cannot exceed the value of the second.

In a semicolon-delimited range, the current address ('.') is set to the first address before the second address is
calculated. This feature can be used to set the starting line for searches if the second address contains a
regular expression. The address '0' (zero) is valid as a starting point so that '0;/re/' can match re in the first
line of the buffer.

Addresses can be omitted on either side of the comma or semicolon separator. If only the first address is
given in a range, then the second address is set to the given address. If only the second address is given, the
resulting address pairs are '1,addr' and '.;addr' respectively. If a n-tuple of addresses is given where n > 2,
then the corresponding range is determined by the last two addresses in the n-tuple. If only one address is
expected, then the last address is used. It is an error to give any number of addresses to a command that
requires zero addresses.

A line address is constructed as follows:

.
The current line (address) in the buffer.
$
The last line in the buffer.
n
The nth line in the buffer, where n is a number in the range '0,$'.
+n
The nth next line, where n is a non-negative number.
-n
The nth previous line, where n is a non-negative number.
+
The next line. This is equivalent to '+1' and may be repeated with cumulative effect.
-
The previous line. This is equivalent to '-1' and may be repeated with cumulative effect.
,
The first through last lines in the buffer. This is equivalent to the address range '1,$'.
;
The current through last lines in the buffer. This is equivalent to the address range '.;$'.
/re/[I]
The next line containing the regular expression re. The search wraps to the beginning of the buffer and
continues down to the current line, if necessary. The suffix 'I' is a GNU extension which makes ed
match re in a case-insensitive manner.
?re?[I]
The previous line containing the regular expression re. The search wraps to the end of the buffer and
continues up to the current line, if necessary. The suffix 'I' is a GNU extension which makes ed match
re in a case-insensitive manner.
'x
The apostrophe-x character pair addresses the line previously marked by a 'k' (mark) command, where
'x' is a lower case letter from the portable character set '[a-z]'.

Addresses can be followed by one or more address offsets, optionally separated by whitespace. Offsets are
constructed as follows:

• '+' or '-' followed by a number adds or subtracts the indicated number of lines to or from the address.
• '+' or '-' not followed by a number adds or subtracts 1 to or from the address.
• A number adds the indicated number of lines to the address.

It is not an error if an intermediate address value is negative or greater than the address of the last line in the
buffer. It is an error if the final address value is negative or greater than the address of the last line in the
buffer. It is an error if a search for a regular expression fails to find a matching line.
Next: Commands, Previous: Line addressing, Up: Top

6 Regular expressions
Regular expressions are patterns used in selecting text. For example, the ed command

g/string/

prints all lines containing string. Regular expressions are also used by the 's' command for selecting old text
to be replaced with new text.

In addition to specifying string literals, regular expressions can represent classes of strings. Strings thus
represented are said to be matched by the corresponding regular expression. If it is possible for a regular
expression to match several strings in a line, then the left-most match is the one selected. If the regular
expression permits a variable number of matching characters, the longest sequence starting at that point is
matched.

An empty regular expression is equivalent to the last regular expression processed. Therefore '/re/s//
replacement/' replaces re with replacement.

As a GNU extension, a regular expression /re/ may be followed by the suffix 'I' which makes ed match re in a
case-insensitive manner. Note that the suffix is evaluated when the regular expression is compiled, thus it is
invalid to specify it together with the empty regular expression.

The following symbols are used in constructing regular expressions using POSIX basic regular expression
syntax:

c
Any character c not listed below, including '{', '}', '(', ')', '<', and '>', matches itself.
\c
Any backslash-escaped character c, other than '{', '}', '(', ')', '<', '>', 'b', 'B', 'w', 'W', '+', and '?', matches
itself.
.
Matches any single character.
[char-class]
Matches any single character in char-class. To include a ']' in char-class, it must be the first character.
A range of characters may be specified by separating the end characters of the range with a '-', e.g., 'a-
z' specifies the lower case characters. The following literal expressions can also be used in char-class
to specify sets of characters:
[:alnum:] [:cntrl:] [:lower:] [:space:]
[:alpha:] [:digit:] [:print:] [:upper:]
[:blank:] [:graph:] [:punct:] [:xdigit:]

If '-' appears as the first or last character of char-class, then it matches itself. All other characters in
char-class match themselves.

Patterns in char-class of the form:

[.col-elm.]
[=col-elm=]

where col-elm is a collating element are interpreted according to 'locale'(5). See 'regex'(7) for an
 explanation of these constructs.

[^char-class]
Matches any single character, other than newline, not in char-class. char-class is defined as above.
^
If '^' is the first character of a regular expression, then it anchors the regular expression to the beginning
of a line. Otherwise, it matches itself.
$
If '$' is the last character of a regular expression, it anchors the regular expression to the end of a line.
Otherwise, it matches itself.
\(re\)
Defines a (possibly empty) subexpression re. Subexpressions may be nested. A subsequent
backreference of the form '\n', where n is a number in the range [1,9], expands to the text matched by
the nth subexpression. For example, the regular expression '\(a.c\)\1' matches the string 'abcabc', but
not 'abcadc'. Subexpressions are ordered relative to their left delimiter.
*
Matches zero or more repetitions of the regular expression immediately preceding it. The regular
expression can be either a single character regular expression or a subexpression. If '*' is the first
character of a regular expression or subexpression, then it matches itself. The '*' operator sometimes
yields unexpected results. For example, the regular expression 'b*' matches the beginning of the string
'abbb', as opposed to the substring 'bbb', since an empty string is the only left-most match.
\{n,m\}
\{n,\}
\{n\}
Matches the single character regular expression or subexpression immediately preceding it at least n
and at most m times. If m is omitted, then it matches at least n times. If the comma is also omitted, then
it matches exactly n times. If any of these forms occurs first in a regular expression or subexpression,
then it is interpreted literally (i.e., the regular expression '\{2\}' matches the string '{2}', and so on).

The following extensions to basic regular expression operators are preceded by a backslash '\' to distinguish
them from traditional ed syntax. They may be unavailable depending on the particular regex implementation
in your system.

\<
\>
Anchors the single character regular expression or subexpression immediately following it to the
beginning (in the case of '\<') or ending (in the case of '\>') of a word, i.e., in ASCII, a maximal string
of alphanumeric characters, including the underscore (_).
\`
\'
Unconditionally matches the beginning '\`' or ending '\'' of a line.
\?
Optionally matches the single character regular expression or subexpression immediately preceding it.
For example, the regular expression 'a[bd]\?c' matches the strings 'abc', 'adc' and 'ac'. If '\?' occurs at
the beginning of a regular expressions or subexpression, then it matches a literal '?'.
\+
Matches the single character regular expression or subexpression immediately preceding it one or more
times. So the regular expression 'a\+' is shorthand for 'aa*'. If '\+' occurs at the beginning of a regular
expression or subexpression, then it matches a literal '+'.
\b
Matches the beginning or ending (empty string) of a word. Thus the regular expression '\bhello\b' is
 equivalent to '\<hello\>'. However, '\b\b' is a valid regular expression whereas '\<\>' is not.
\B
Matches (an empty string) inside a word.
\w
Matches any word-constituent character (letters, digits, and the underscore).
\W
Matches any character that is not a word-constituent.

Next: The 's' Command, Previous: Regular expressions, Up: Top

7 Commands
All ed commands are single characters, though some require additional parameters. If a command's
parameters extend over several lines, then each line except for the last must be terminated with a backslash
('\').

In general, at most one command is allowed per line. However, most commands accept a print suffix, which
is any of 'p' (print), 'l' (list), or 'n' (enumerate), to print the last line affected by the command. It is not portable
to give more than one print suffix, but ed allows any combination of non-repeated print suffixes and
combines their effects. If any suffix letter is given, it must immediately follow the command.

The 'e', 'E', 'f', 'r', and 'w' commands take an optional file parameter, separated from the command letter by one
or more whitespace characters.

An interrupt (typically <Control-C>) has the effect of aborting the current command and returning the editor
to command mode.

edrecognizes the following commands. The commands are shown together with the default address or
address range supplied if none is specified (in parenthesis).

(.)a
Appends text to the buffer after the addressed line. The address '0' (zero) is valid for this command; it
places the entered text at the beginning of the buffer. Text is entered in input mode. The current address
is set to the address of the last line entered or, if there were none, to the addressed line.
(.,.)c
Changes lines in the buffer. The addressed lines are deleted from the buffer, and text is inserted in their
place. Text is entered in input mode. The current address is set to the address of the last line entered or,
if there were none, to the new address of the line after the last line deleted; if the lines deleted were
originally at the end of the buffer, the current address is set to the address of the new last line; if no
lines remain in the buffer, the current address is set to zero. The lines deleted are copied to the cut
buffer.
(.,.)d
Deletes the addressed lines from the buffer. The current address is set to the new address of the line
after the last line deleted; if the lines deleted were originally at the end of the buffer, the current address
is set to the address of the new last line; if no lines remain in the buffer, the current address is set to
zero. The lines deleted are copied to the cut buffer.
e file
Edits file, and sets the default filename. If file is not specified, then the default filename is used. Any
lines in the buffer are deleted before the new file is read. If file does not exist, a warning is printed in
place of a byte count and the resulting buffer is left empty. The current address is set to the address of
the last line in the buffer.
 If file is prefixed with a bang (!), then it is interpreted as a shell command whose output is to be read,
(see shell escape command '!' below). In this case the default filename is unchanged. To edit a file
whose name begins with a bang, prefix the name with ./.

A warning is printed if the buffer modified flag is set. If another 'e' or 'q' command is given with no
intervening error or buffer-modifying command, it is executed without warning, and any changes to the
buffer are lost.

E file
Edits file unconditionally. This is similar to the 'e' command, except that unwritten changes are
discarded without warning.
f file
Sets the default filename to file, whether or not file names an existing file. If file is not specified, then
the default filename is printed. Tilde expansion is performed on file; if file starts with ~/, the ~ is
expanded to specify your home directory $HOME.
(1,$)g/re/[I]command-list
Global command. The global command makes two passes over the file. On the first pass, all the
addressed lines matching a regular expression re are marked. The suffix 'I' is a GNU extension which
makes ed match re in a case-insensitive manner. Then, going sequentially from the beginning of the file
to the end of the file, the given command-list is executed for each marked line, with the current address
set to the address of that line. Any line modified by the command-list is unmarked. The final value of
the current address is the value assigned by the last command in the last command-list executed. If
there were no matching lines, the current address is unchanged. The execution of command-list stops
on the first error.

The first command of command-list must appear on the same line as the 'g' command. The other
commands of command-list must appear on separate lines. All lines of a multi-line command-list
except the last line must be terminated with a backslash ('\'). Any commands are allowed, except for 'g',
'G', 'v', and 'V'. The '.' terminating the input mode of commands 'a', 'c', and 'i' can be omitted if it would
be the last line of command-list. By default, a newline alone in command-list is equivalent to a 'p'
command. If ed is invoked with the command-line option -G, then a newline in command-list is
equivalent to a '.+1p' command.

(1,$)G/re/[I]
Interactive global command. Interactively edits the addressed lines matching a regular expression re.
The suffix 'I' is a GNU extension which makes ed match re in a case-insensitive manner. For each
matching line, the line is printed, the current address is set, and the user is prompted to enter a
command-list. The final value of the current address is the value assigned by the last command
executed. If there were no matching lines, the current address is unchanged.

The format of command-list is the same as that of the 'g' command. A newline alone acts as an empty
command list. A single '&' repeats the last non-empty command list.

h
Prints a help message explaining the reason for the most recent '?' notification.
H
Toggles the printing of help messages (see the 'h' command above). If the help mode is being turned on,
also prints the help message corresponding to the most recent '?' notification. By default, help messages
are not printed.
(.)i
Inserts text in the buffer before the addressed line. The address '0' (zero) is valid for this command; it
places the entered text at the beginning of the buffer. Text is entered in input mode. The current address
 is set to the address of the last line entered or, if there were none, to the addressed line.
(.,.+1)j
Joins the addressed lines, replacing them by a single line containing their joined text. If only one
address is given, this command does nothing. If lines are joined, the lines replaced are copied to the cut
buffer and the current address is set to the address of the joined line. Else, the current address is
unchanged.
(.)kx
Marks a line with a lower case letter 'x'. The line can then be addressed as ''x' (i.e., a single quote
followed by 'x') in subsequent commands. The mark is not cleared until the line is deleted or otherwise
modified. The current address is unchanged.
(.,.)l
List command. Prints the addressed lines unambiguously. The end of each line is marked with a '$', and
every '$' character within the text is printed with a preceding backslash. Special characters are printed
as escape sequences. The current address is set to the address of the last line printed.
(.,.)m(.)
Moves lines in the buffer. The addressed lines are moved to after the right-hand destination address.
The destination address '0' (zero) is valid for this command; it moves the addressed lines to the
beginning of the buffer. It is an error if the destination address falls within the range of lines to be
moved. The current address is set to the new address of the last line moved.
(.,.)n
Number command. Prints the addressed lines, preceding each line by its line number and a <tab>. The
current address is set to the address of the last line printed.
(.,.)p
Prints the addressed lines. The current address is set to the address of the last line printed.
P
Toggles the command prompt on and off. Unless a prompt string is specified with the command-line
option -p, the command prompt is by default turned off. The default prompt string is an asterisk ('*').
q
Quits ed. A warning is printed if the buffer modified flag is set. If another 'e' or 'q' command is given
with no intervening error or buffer-modifying command, it is executed without warning, and any
changes to the buffer are lost.
Q
Quits ed unconditionally. This is similar to the 'q' command, except that unwritten changes are
discarded without warning.
($)r file
Reads file and appends it after the addressed line. If file is not specified, then the default filename is
used. If there is no default filename prior to the command, then the default filename is set to file.
Otherwise, the default filename is unchanged. The address '0' (zero) is valid for this command; it reads
the file at the beginning of the buffer. The current address is set to the address of the last line read or, if
there were none, to the addressed line.

If file is prefixed with a bang (!), then it is interpreted as a shell command whose output is to be read,
(see shell escape command '!' below). In this case the default filename is unchanged. To read a file
whose name begins with a bang, prefix the name with ./.

(.,.)t(.)
Copies (i.e., transfers) the addressed lines to after the right-hand destination address. If the destination
address is '0' (zero), the lines are copied at the beginning of the buffer. The current address is set to the
address of the last line copied.
u
Undoes the effect of the last command that modified anything in the buffer and restores the current
 address to what it was before the command. The global commands 'g', 'G', 'v', and 'V' are treated as a
single command by undo. 'u' is its own inverse; it can undo only the last command.
(1,$)v/re/[I]command-list
This is similar to the 'g' command except that it applies command-list to each of the addressed lines not
matching the regular expression re.
(1,$)V/re/[I]
This is similar to the 'G' command except that it interactively edits the addressed lines not matching the
regular expression re.
(1,$)w file
Writes the addressed lines to file. Any previous contents of file are lost without warning. If there is no
default filename, then the default filename is set to file, otherwise it is unchanged. If no filename is
specified, then the default filename is used. If the whole buffer is written, then the buffer modified flag
is cleared. The current address is unchanged.

If file is prefixed with a bang (!), then it is interpreted as a shell command and the addressed lines are
written to its standard input, (see shell escape command '!' below). In this case the default filename is
unchanged. Writing the buffer to a shell command does not clear the buffer modified flag. To write to a
file whose name begins with a bang, prefix the name with ./.

(1,$)wq file
Writes the addressed lines to file, and then executes a 'q' command.
(1,$)W file
Appends the addressed lines to the end of file. This is similar to the 'w' command, except that the
previous contents of file are not clobbered. The current address is unchanged.
(.)x
Copies (puts) the contents of the cut buffer to after the addressed line. The current address is set to the
address of the last line copied.
(.,.)y
Copies (yanks) the addressed lines to the cut buffer. The cut buffer is overwritten by subsequent 'c', 'd',
'j', 's', or 'y' commands. The current address is unchanged.
(.+1)zn
Scroll. Prints n lines at a time starting at addressed line, and sets window size to n. If n is not specified,
then the current window size is used. Window size defaults to screen size minus two lines, or to 22 if
screen size can't be determined. The environment variable LINES can be used to set the initial window
size. LINES and n are not limited by screen size. The current address is set to the address of the last line
printed.

!command
Shell escape command. Executes command via sh. If the first character of command is '!', then it is
replaced by the text of the previous '!command'. Thus, '!!' repeats the previous '!command'. ed does not
process command for backslash ('\') escapes. However, each unescaped '%' is replaced with the default
filename, and the backslash is removed from each escaped '%'. When the shell returns from execution, a
'!' is printed to the standard output. The current address is unchanged.

The effect of ex(1) style '!' filtering can be achieved with the following sequence of commands:
addr1,addr2w !command > tmp.txt 2>&1
addr2r tmp.txt
addr1,addr2d
!rm tmp.txt
(.,.)#
Begins a comment; the rest of the line, up to a newline, is ignored. If a line address followed by a
semicolon is given, then the current address is set to that address. Otherwise, the current address is
unchanged.
($)=
Prints the line number of the addressed line. The current address is unchanged.
(.+1)<newline>
Null command. An address alone prints the addressed line. A <newline> alone is equivalent to '+1p'.
The current address is set to the address of the printed line.

Next: Limitations, Previous: Commands, Up: Top

8 Substitute command
The substitute command 's' replaces text in the addressed lines matching a regular expression re with
replacement. By default, only the first match in each line is replaced. The syntax of the 's' command is:
(.,.)s/re/replacement/[suffixes]

The 's' command accepts any combination of the following optional suffixes:

g
'global': replace every match in the line, not just the first.
count
A positive number causes only the countth match to be replaced. 'g' and 'count' can't be specified in the
same command.
l
n
p
The usual print suffixes. See print suffixes.
I
i
The suffix 'I' is a GNU extension which makes ed match re in a case-insensitive manner.

It is an error if no substitutions are performed on any of the addressed lines. The current address is set to the
address of the last line on which a substitution occurred. If a line is split, a substitution is considered to have
occurred on each of the new lines. If no substitution is performed, the current address is unchanged. The last
line modified is copied to the cut buffer.

re and replacement may be delimited by any character other than <space>, <newline>, and the characters
used by the form of the 's' command shown below. If the last delimiter is omitted, then the last line affected is
printed as if the print suffix 'p' were specified. The last delimiter can't be omitted if the 's' command is part of
a 'g' or 'v' command-list and is not the last command in the list, because the meaning of the following escaped
newline would become ambiguous.

An unescaped '&' in replacement is replaced by the currently matched text. The character sequence '\m' where
m is a number in the range [1,9], is replaced by the mth backreference expression of the matched text. If the
corresponding backreference expression does not match, then the character sequence '\m' is replaced by the
empty string. If replacement consists of a single '%', then replacement from the last substitution is used.
A line can be split by including a newline escaped with a backslash ('\') in replacement. Each backslash in
replacement removes the special meaning (if any) of the following character.

ed can repeat the last substitution using the following alternative syntax for the 's' command:

(.,.)s[suffixes]

This form of the 's' command accepts the suffixes 'g' and 'count' described above, and any combination of the
suffixes 'p' and 'r'. The suffix 'g' toggles the global suffix of the last substitution and resets count to 1. The
suffix 'p' toggles the print suffixes of the last substitution. The suffix 'r' causes the re of the last search to be
used instead of the re of the last substitution (if the search happened after the substitution).

Next: Diagnostics, Previous: The 's' Command, Up: Top

9 Limitations
If the terminal hangs up and the buffer is modified and not empty, ed attempts to write the buffer to the file
ed.hup or, if this fails, to $HOME/ed.hup.

If a text (non-binary) file is not terminated by a newline character, then ed appends one on reading/writing it.
In the case of a binary file, ed does not append a newline on reading/writing. A binary file is one containing
at least one ASCII NUL character. If the last line has been modified, reading an empty file, for example /dev/
null, prior to writing prevents appending a newline to a binary file.

In order to keep track of the text lines in the buffer, ed uses a doubly linked list of structures containing the
position and size of each line. This results in a per line overhead of 2 'pointer's, 1 'long int', and 1 'int'. The
maximum line length is INT_MAX - 1 bytes. The maximum number of lines is INT_MAX - 2 lines.

Next: Problems, Previous: Limitations, Up: Top

10 Diagnostics
edprints two kinds of mesages: diagnostic messages (errors and warnings) written to standard error and help
messages written to standard output. Diagnostic messages may be suppresed with option -q. Help messages
may be enabled with option -v and may be toggled with command 'H'.

ed warns the first time that a command modifies a buffer loaded from a read-only file.

When an error occurs, if ed's standard input is a regular file or here document, then it exits, otherwise it prints
a '?' and returns to command mode. An explanation of the last error can be printed with the 'h' (help)
command.

If the 'u' (undo) command occurs in a global command list, then the command list is executed only once.

Next: GNU Free Documentation License, Previous: Diagnostics, Up: Top

11 Reporting bugs
There are probably bugs in ed. There are certainly errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them,
they will get fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will remain unfixed for all
eternity, if not longer.

If you find a bug in ed, please send electronic mail to [email protected]. Include the version number, which
you can find by running 'ed --version'.

Previous: Problems, Up: Top

12 GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
http://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

0. PREAMBLE

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document
free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with
or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves
for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible
for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must
themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a
copyleft license designed for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software
needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that
the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual
work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this
License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the
copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a
world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated
herein. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a
licensee, and is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in
a way requiring permission under copyright law.

A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it,
either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals
exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's
overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall
 subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not
explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject
or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
them.

The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of
Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section
does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The
Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant
Sections then there are none.

The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-
Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover
Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.

A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose
specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document
straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs
or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters
or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in
an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart
or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not
Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called
“Opaque”.

Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ����� without markup, Texinfo input
format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming
simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image
formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and
edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools
are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some
word processors for output purposes only.

The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are
needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in
formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page” means the text near the most prominent
appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document to the public.

A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ
or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ
stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”,
“Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve the Title” of such a section when you modify the
Document means that it remains a section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.

The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License
applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in
this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty
Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.

2. VERBATIM COPYING
 You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially,
provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to
the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of
this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying
of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.
If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display
copies.

3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document,
numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose
the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front
cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you
as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with
changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these
conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones
listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either
include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each
Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to
download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free
of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus
accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy
(directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing
any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
Document.

4. MODIFICATIONS

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2
and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the
Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the
Modified Version:

A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and
from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section
of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of
that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of
the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of
the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from
 this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright
notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to
use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum
below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given
in the Document's license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the
title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there
is no section Entitled “History” in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified
Version as stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent
copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous
versions it was based on. These may be placed in the “History” section. You may omit a network
location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the
original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title of the
section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles.
Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included in the Modified
Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in title with any
Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary
Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or
all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the
Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your
Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been
approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a
Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by)
any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by
you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another;
but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old
one.

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their
names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms
defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of
the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant
Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty
Disclaimers.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant
Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same
name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in
parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique
number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license
notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the various original
documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any sections Entitled
“Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You must delete all sections Entitled
“Endorsements.”

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this
License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim
copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this
License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or
works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the copyright
resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's users beyond
what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does
not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the
Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the
Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the
Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole
aggregate.

8. TRANSLATION

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document
under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission
from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in
addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this
License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you
 also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and
disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License
or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.

If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “History”, the

requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.

9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under
this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License.

However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder
is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates
your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some
reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright
holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received
notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation
prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have
received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not
permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any
rights to use it.

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation
License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a
particular numbered version of this License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free
Software Foundation. If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this
License can be used, that proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes
you to choose that version for the Document.

11. RELICENSING

“Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide Web server that
publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works.
A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor
Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published
on the MMC site.

“CC-BY-SA” means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license published by Creative
Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
 California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization.

“Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part of another

Document.

An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works that were first
published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole
or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated
prior to November 1, 2008.

The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC-BY-SA on the
same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put
the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) year your name.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with...Texts.” line with
this:
with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two
alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in
parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their
use in free software.