Skip to content

Sed Messed Up on OS X?

Categories: Uncategorized

Table of Contents

While trying to further my knowledge in unix/shell programming I’ve found that the unix command sed is messed up in os x. I think the problem is that the GNU/linux versions of some commands are different that the Darwin/BSD versions, this might be obvious to you linux/unix gurus out there but to me this is new news. I always assumed that the functionality in the commands on os x and most linux variants were the same.

In any case, I downloaded the GNU sed source code and compiled a nice fixed sed command for myself (After I compiled it I found out you could of just easily gotten GNU sed through fink-commander. :P). Walla, the newline problem I was having with the mac os x version of sed was fixed.

2 responses to “Sed Messed Up on OS X?

  1. Hi,

    I’m using sed to transform XML, and ran into what I think is the same problem, that sed doesn’t see n as a newline in Mac OSX.

    My question is (I’m a newbie) how do you download and compite the GNU source code?

    Best,
    Laurel

  2. You can compile GNU sed by downloading the source, unpacking the source archive, then executing the following commands in the terminal assuming all the sed source code in a “sed-source” directory on the desktop:

    cd ~/Desktop/sed-source
    mkdir sed
    ./configure –prefix=~/sed && make && make install

    sed will be located in the bin folder inside a sed folder on your desktop.
    Email/AIM me if you need more help.
    -Mike

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Keep in Touch

Subscribe to my email list to keep in touch. I’ll send you new blog posts and other thoughts.