ed was the original standard text editor on the Unix operating system. ed was originally written by Ken Thompson and contains one of the first implementations of regular expressions. Prior to that implementation, the concept of regular expressions was only formalized in a mathematical paper, which Ken Thompson had read. ed was influenced by an earlier editor known as QED from University of California at Berkeley, Ken Thompson's alma mater. ed went on to influence ex, which in turn spawned vi. The non-interactive Unix commands grep and sed were inspired by common special uses of ed; their influence is visible in the design of the programming language AWK, which in turn inspired aspects of Perl. Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Ken Thompson Kenneth Thompson (born February 4, 1943) is a pioneer of computer science notable for his contributions to the development of the C programming language and the UNIX operating system. ... In computing, a regular expression is a string that is used to describe or match a set of strings, according to certain syntax rules. ... QED is a line-oriented computer text editor. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... Ex (disambiguation) ex, short for EXtended, was a line editor for UNIX. It was an advanced version of the standard UNIX editor ed, included in the Berkeley Software Distribution. ... The correct title of this article is vi. ... grep is a command line utility that was originally written for use with the Unix operating system. ... The correct title of this article is . ... AWK is a general purpose computer language that is designed for processing text-based data, either in files or data streams. ... Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ...

Famous for its terseness, ed gives almost no visual feedback. For example, the message that ed will produce in case of error, or when it wants to make sure the user wishes to quit without saving, is "?". It does not report the current filename or line number, or even display the results of a change to the text, unless requested. This terseness was appropriate in the early versions of Unix, when consoles were teletypes, modems were slow, and memory was precious. As computer technology improved and these constraints were loosened, more interactive editors became the standard. A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ... A modem (from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of data storage used in computers. ...

In current practice, ed is rarely used interactively, but does find use in some shell scripts. For interactive use, ed was subsumed by the sam, vi and Emacs editors in the 1980s. ed can be found on virtually every version of Unix and Linux available, and as such is useful for people who have to work with multiple versions of Unix. If something goes wrong, ed is sometimes the only editor available. This is often the only time when it is used interactively. A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line interpreter, of an operating system. ... Sam is a multi-file text editor originally designed at Bell Labs by Rob Pike (with the help of Ken Thompson and other Unix developers) in the early 1980s for the DMD 5620 windowing terminal running Unix. ... The correct title of this article is vi. ... Emacs is a class of text editors, possessing an extensive set of features, that are popular with computer programmers and other technically proficient computer users. ... The 1980s refers to the years of and between 1980 and 1989. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ...

The ed commands are often imitated in other line-based editors. For example, EDLIN in early MS-DOS versions had a somewhat similar syntax, and text editors in many MUDs (LPMud and descendants, for example) use ed-like syntax. These editors, however, are typically more limited in function. The EDLIN line editor was the only text editor provided with MS-DOS before version 5. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social chat rooms. ... LPMud (sometimes shortened to simply LP) is a MUD variant developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö that separates the mud game functionality between a virtual machine (known as the driver) and world-building components in the LPC programming language (known as the mudlib). ...

Example

Here is an example transcript of an ed session:

 a ed is the standard Unix text editor. This is line number two. . 2i . 1,$l ed is the standard Unix text editor.$ $ This is line number two.$ 3s/two/three/ 1,$l ed is the standard Unix text editor.$ $ This is line number three.$ w text 65 q 

The end result is a simple text file containing the following text:

 ed is the standard Unix text editor. This is line number three. 

Started with an empty file, the a command appends text (all ed commands are single letters). The command put ed in insert mode, inserting the characters that follow and is terminated by a singular dot on a line. The two lines that are entered before the dot end up in the file buffer. The 2i command also goes into insert mode, and will insert the entered text (a single empty line in our case) before line two. All commands may be prefixed by a line number to operate on that line.

In 1,$l the l stands for the list command. The command is prefixed by a range, two line numbers separated by a comma ($ means the last line). In return, ed lists all lines, from first to last. These lines are ended with dollar signs, so that white space at the end of lines is clearly visible.

The error in line 3 is corrected with 3s/two/three/, a substitution command. The 3 will apply it to the correct line, following the command is the text to be replaced, and then the replacement. Listing all lines again with 1,$l the line is shown now to be correct.

w text writes the buffer to the file "text" making ed respond with 65, the number of characters written to the file. q will end an ed session.

Bill Joy, vi, and ed

In the editor wars, Emacs proponents used to say, "even Bill Joy doesn't use vi anymore." The hacker community has a tradition of treating their favorite text editor with a reverence bordering on religious fanaticism. ... Emacs is a class of text editors, possessing an extensive set of features, that are popular with computer programmers and other technically proficient computer users. ... Bill Joy (left) with Paul Saffo. ...

In a 1985 interview Bill Joy explained that, at Sun, he used an early desktop publishing program, called Interleaf; when visiting labs outside Sun, he used plain old ed. Although vi was almost ubiquitous, he could not count on the local version working the way he expected. However, ed was never modified, so he could count on making it work without making himself look like a fool. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Founded in 1981, Interleaf was a company that produced a technical publishing software product with the same name. ...

See also

• List of Unix programs
• Editor wars
• vi

This is a list of Unix programs. ... The hacker community has a tradition of treating their favorite text editor with a reverence bordering on religious fanaticism. ... The correct title of this article is vi. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... A command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. ... This is a list of Unix programs. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... chattr is a UNIX program that allows a user to set certain attributes to a file. ... The chdir or cd command (change directory) in the Unix and DOS operating systems, is used to change the current working directory. ... The chmod command (abbreviated from change mode) is a shell command in Unix and Unix-like environments. ... chown is a Unix command used to change the recorded owner of a computer file. ... The chgrp command is used by unprivileged users on Unix-like systems to change the group associated with a file. ... cp is the command entered in a Unix shell to copy a file from one place to another, possibly on a different filesystem. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... file is a program originated in Unix that runs under the shell (command-line) to determine the file type heuristically instead of other simpler ways to classify it, like with file extensions, MIMEs, etc. ... The system utility fsck (for file system check or file system consistency check) is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in the Unix system and clones thereof. ... The ln command is used on Unix-like systems to create links between files. ... LS may refer to: .ls, the Internet top-level domain for Lesotho Jet2. ... lsof is a command found in almost any Unix system that reports open files by processes of a Operating System. ... The mkdir command in the Unix operating system is used to make a new directory. ... ... The correct title of this article is . ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... split is a Unix utility most commonly used to split a file into one or more other files. ... touch is a standard Unix program used to change a files access and modification timestamps. ... The at command is used to schedule commands to be executed once at a particular time in the future. ... A chroot on Unix operating systems is an operation which changes the root directory. ... The correct title of this article is . ... Exit is a command used in many operating system command line shells. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: kill In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, kill is a command used to send simple messages to processes running on the system. ... killall is a command line utility initially written for use with the GNU/Linux operating systems. ... nice (IPA pronunciation: ) is a command found on UNIX and other POSIX-like operating systems such as Linux. ... pgrep is a command line utility initially written for use with the Solaris 7 operating systems and then ported to GNU/Linux. ... pidof is a Linux utility that returns the process ID (PID) of a running process. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... sleep is an instruction for a computer that delays execution for a specified period of time. ... This article is about a Unix command. ... In many Unix-like operating systems, the top command produces a constantly-updated list of all resident processes, listed in order of CPU usage. ... The correct title of this article is . ... In Unix, watch runs the specified command repeatedly and displays the output on stdout so you can watch it change over time. ... env is a shell utility for Unix-like operating systems (including Linux). ... In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information. ... In computer software, id is a program in Unix operating systems that prints the uid of the account of which the program is executed by. ... mesg is a Unix command that sets or reports the permission other users have to write to your terminal using the talk and write commands. ... passwd is a tool on most Unix and Linux systems used to change a users password. ... The Unix su (substitute user) command is used to assume the login shell of another user without logging out. ... sudo (superuser do) is a program in Unix, Linux, and similar operating systems such as Mac OS X that allows users to run programs in the guise of another user (normally in the guise of the systems superuser). ... In computer software, uname is a program in Unix operating systems that prints the name, version and other details about the running operating system. ... Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system has been up and running. ... The command w on many Unix-like operating systems provides a quick summary of every user logged into a computer, what that user is currently doing, and what load all the activity is imposing on the computer itself. ... wall is a Unix command line utility. ... who is a Unix-command which creates almost the same output as the Unix-command w; it shows you users currently logged in a system. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... write can refer to several Unix commands. ... AWK is a general purpose computer language that is designed for processing text-based data, either in files or data streams. ... The comm command in Unix is a utility that is used to compare two files. ... cut is a Unix command which is typically used to extract a certain range of characters from a line, usually from a file. ... ex, short for EXtended, is a line editor for Unix systems. ... head is a program that shows the first 10 lines by default of a file or piped data, on Unix and Unix-like systems. ... iconv is a computer program and a standardized API used to convert between different character encodings. ... join is a command in Unix-like operating systems. ... less is a program on Unix and Unix-like systems used to view (but not change) the contents of a text file one screen at a time. ... Example output of the more command. ... Paste is a Unix utility tool which is used to join files horizontally (parallel merging), e. ... The correct title of this article is . ... sort is a standard Unix command line program that prints the lines of its input in sorted order. ... tail is a program on Unix and Unix-like systems used to display the last few lines of a text file or piped data. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... uniq is a Unix utility which, when fed a text file, outputs the file with adjacent identical lines collapsed to one. ... wc (short for word count) is a command in Unix-like operating systems. ... xargs is a command of the Unix and most Unix-like operating system which eases passing command output to another command as command line arguments. ... In computing, a shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for users (command line interpreter). ... echo is a command in Unix (and by extension, its descendants, such as Linux) and MS-DOS that places a string on the terminal. ... expr is a command line Unix utility which evaluates an expression and outputs the corresponding value. ... Several programming languages implement a printf function, to output a formatted string. ... unset is a Unix shell command. ... The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is a modularised computer printing system for Unix-like operating systems that allows computers to act as powerful print servers. ... inetd is a daemon on many Unix systems that manages Internet services. ... Screenshot of netstat in Windows XP Professional netstat is a command-line tool that displays a list of the active network connections the computer currently has, both incoming and outgoing. ... For other uses, see Ping (disambiguation). ... In computing, rlogin is a Unix software utility that allows users to log in on another host via a network, communicating via TCP port 513. ... tracert in action on Windows XP. traceroute, or tracepath on modern Linux systems, tracert on Windows operating system, is a TCP/IP utility which allows the user to determine the route packets take to reach a particular host. ... For the EP by Hidden in Plain View, see Find (EP) The find program is a search utility, mostly found on Unix-like platforms. ... grep is a command line utility that was originally written for use with the Unix operating system. ... In computer software, strings is a program in Unix-like operating systems that prints the strings found in an executable. ... The banner program displays a large ASCII art version of input text. ... bc is an arbitrary precision calculator language with syntax similar to the C programming language. ... cal is a standard program on Unix that prints an ASCII calendar of the given month or year. ... The man page on man Almost all substantial UNIX and Unix-like operating systems have extensive documentation known as man pages (short for manual pages). The Unix command used to display them is man. ... size is a command line utility originally written for use with the Unix-like operating systems. ... yes is a Unix command. ...

External links

• GNU ed homepage
• GNU ed for Win32
• Unix Editors I
• ed Humor
• The program's manpage