* sed: Stream EDitor 1. search and print sed -n 'asdf/p' file : Read file line by line without print (-n), and print a line if asdf is found. 2. substitution sed 's/asdf/qwer/' file : replace asdf by qwer, and does not change original file. just print sed 's/asdf/qwer/' file > copyfile : replace asdf by qwer, and copy file to copyfile sed -i 's/asdf/qwer/' file : replace asdf by qwer and change original file If you would like to do for entire file, using '/g'. sed -i 's/asdf/qwer/g' file : replace asdf by qwer for entire file, and change original file Thanks, JF