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Message-ID: <000701c34b9a$1c7e6c80$6fc82486@medschool.dundee.ac.uk>
Reply-To: <fergus AT bonhard DOT uklinux DOT net>
From: <fergus AT bonhard DOT uklinux DOT net>
To: <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Cc: <fergus AT bonhard DOT uklinux DOT net>
Subject: Cygwin's vanilla sed : capabilities and limitations
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:59:36 +0100
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This is probably a cheat question (non-central Cygwin issue) but it is about
Cygwin's vanilla sed.

AND it is only asked in order eventually to provide anybody interested with
the elegant-est possible script for making a portable Cygwin CD.

Q1. Querying info sed reveals the expression matcher to be "greedy",
matching the longest possible string. Is there a way to make it match the
shortest possible, so that echo aaabbbccc | sed 's/^.*b//' (altered but
similar) grabs aaab not aaabbb?

Q2. Is there a way using the supplied sed without major enhancements to
change "abc x def" to "def x abc": that is, to grab two distinct portions
and swap them (using $1,$2 or \1,\2 or whatever).

Sorry for asking: I know it's a sin: hope the end articulated above
justifies the means.

Fergus


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