A wrapper for sed(1), to emulate the non-portable in-place editing capability (-i, --in-place) by using a temporary file. It mirrors the options mandated by POSIX (-e, -f, -n), with the addition of the non-portable -r and -E, for extended regular expressions, and GNU style long-option versions. If no -i is used, a single sed(1) will be run, as opposed to running one per file, where each one is writing to a temporary file. The temporary file will eventually be moved to overwrite the original file.

There are a lot of unportable build scripts/systems, preventing the usage of sed(1) from sbase or 9base, for example. Instead of keeping a separate sed(1) around, this wrapper can be used as compatiblity layer.

To use this wrapper, it should be placed in a directory which is listed in $PATH first, before the directory containing the wrapped sed(1).

make install
PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

-e <script> | --expression=<script> | --expression <script>
-f <script_file> | --file=<script_file> | --file <script_file>
-i[<suffix>] | --in-place[=<suffix>]
-n | --quiet | --silent
-r | -E | --regexp-extended

All other options will be passed to the wrapped sed(1) as is.