Re: [Bug-ed] Global substitutions that insert newlines

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Hello Rob,

Rob Arthan wrote:
> I have a script that uses ed to generate C string definitions from nroff output.
> It makes essential use of global substitutions with a newline as the 
> replacement text, e.g.,
>
> g/^##*/s/#*/\
> /
>
> This functionality is no longer available as of version 1.14 of GNU ed. Is there
> a work-around for this?

This functionality was removed from GNU ed because inside a global 
command the meaning of the escaped newline becomes ambiguous. The POSIX 
standard documents it:

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/ed.html

"A line can be split by substituting a <newline> into it. The 
application shall ensure it escapes the <newline> in the replacement by 
preceding it by <backslash>. Such substitution cannot be done as part of 
a g or v command list."

The workaround is to use 'sed' to split a line in this way. I think sed 
does not have this problem because it does not need a 'global' command.


Best regards,
Antonio.
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