7.3. Metacharacters, Listed by Program Some metacharacters are valid for one program but not for another. Those that are available are marked by a bullet (•) in the following table. Items marked with a "P" are specified by POSIX. Full descriptions were provided in the previous section. Symbol | ed | ex | vi | sed | awk | grep | egrep | Action |
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. | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Match any character. | * | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Match zero or more preceding characters. | ^ | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Match beginning of line/string. | $ | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Match end of line/string. | \ | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Escape following character. | [ ] | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | Match one from a set. | \( \) | • | • | • | • | | • | | Store pattern for later replay.[a] | \n | • | • | • | • | | • | | Replay subpattern in match. | { } | | | | | • P | | • P | Match a range of instances. | \{ \} | • | | | • | | • | | Match a range of instances. | \< \> | • | • | • | | | | | Match word's beginning or end. | + | | | | | • | | • | Match one or more preceding characters. | ? | | | | | • | | • | Match zero or one preceding characters. | | | | | | | • | | • | Separate choices to match. | ( ) | | | | | • | | • | Group expressions to match. |
[a] Stored subpatterns can be "replayed" during matching. See the following table. Note that in ed, ex, vi, and sed, you specify both a search pattern (on the left) and a replacement pattern (on the right). The metacharacters listed above are meaningful only in a search pattern. In ed, ex, vi, and sed, the metacharacters in the following table are valid only in a replacement pattern. Symbol | ex | vi | sed | ed | Action |
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\ | • | • | • | • | Escape following character. | \n | • | • | • | • | Text matching pattern stored in \( \). | & | • | • | • | • | Text matching search pattern. | ~ | • | • | | | Reuse previous replacement pattern. | % | | | | • | Reuse previous replacement pattern. | \u \U | • | • | | | Change character(s) to uppercase. | \l \L | • | • | | | Change character(s) to lowercase. | \e | • | • | | | Turn off previous \u or \l. | \E | • | • | | | Turn off previous \U or \L. |
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