On 02/12/2011 06:25 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: > > Hi, > > I am trying to instruct sed to insert a line of text before > a matched line. The whole command should fit into one > physical (command) line. > > Is it possible? And how is it possible? > > Thank you very much for any hint in advance! > Best regards, > mcc > > >
Try the ampersand "&" like the example below. Make a file of phone numbers. $ cat phone.txt 555-1212 555-1234 555-9999 Then run the following command to prefix the number with 212 and a dash. $ sed 's/555/212-&/' phone.txt 212-555-1212 212-555-1234 212-555-9999 Try moving the ampersand around the replacement string. If moved to the beginning it transposes the numbers. Note: The dash was moved to make the result look better, it has nothing to do with the command. $ sed 's/555/&-212/' phone.txt 555-212-1212 555-212-1234 555-212-9999