Is there any sed like utility for cmd.exe?

Question

I want to programmatically edit file content using windows command line (cmd.exe). In *nix there is sed for this tasks. Are there any useful native equivalents (cmd or ps) in windows?

What do you mean by "native" ??? Installable to work in cmd.exe, or to work without installation whatsoever? If the former, see GnuWin32 ref'd below; if the latter, no. No pre-installed native sed for windows. — Michael Paulukonis, May 26 '09 at 13:10
By native I meant solution which runs on all windows without installing additional stuff. — Jakub Šturc, May 26 '09 at 17:34
Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/60034/how-can-you-find-and-replace-text-in-a-file-using-the-windows-command-line-envir — AlikElzin-kilaka, Nov 26 '15 at 16:11
If you just want to delete certain lines from a file, use FIND /? — John Henckel, Apr 25 '16 at 13:04
If you just want to search and replace text in a string or variable in CMD, you can just do `%var:old=new%`. See https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-replace.html for more info. — wisbucky, Mar 27 '18 at 23:31

score 167 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 07 '21 at 16:16

167

Today powershell saved me.

For grep there is:

get-content somefile.txt | where { $_ -match "expression"}

or

select-string somefile.txt -pattern "expression"

and for sed there is:

get-content somefile.txt | %{$_ -replace "expression","replace"}

For more detail about replace PowerShell function see this Microsoft article.

edited Apr 07 '21 at 16:16

Clément Moulin - SimpleRezo

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answered May 17 '11 at 09:35

Jakub Šturc

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In addition: if you want to call it from normal cmd, just @powershell -Command "get-content..." it. The only caveat is that you must escape quotations marks: ... -Command "get-content ... \"expression\",..." – Tarc Jul 25 '14 at 19:13
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@Tarc AFAIR, you can use single quotes in your command and use double quotes to quote the command instead – Apr 13 '16 at 16:15
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I tried this today on a file to remove some stuff between quotes in certain places, only to discover that the output was a file almost twice as large as the original. The reason appeared to be that this method changed the way newlines were handled in the file to use "\r\n" instead of "\n". – user132278 Sep 26 '16 at 01:16
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Doubling due to \r\n would imply that your file was composed purely of newlines. Here is the real reason: [encoding](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21374118/size-of-the-sorted-file-is-double-than-original-file-in-powershell). – Amit Naidu Oct 08 '16 at 01:20
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@Jakub Šturc : is there a easy way to do this `sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' *` – and-bri Apr 30 '18 at 15:49
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@and-bri (Get-Content c:\temp\test.txt).replace('[MYID]', 'MyValue') | Set-Content c:\temp\test.txt – AFP_555 May 03 '19 at 15:44
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instead of `get-content | where` why don't just use [`select-string`](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/select-string?view=powershell-6)? – phuclv Nov 28 '19 at 11:03
@phuclv: Thank you I will update my answer. – Jakub Šturc Nov 28 '19 at 11:21
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@JakubŠturc The solution you put for replacing `sed` didn't work for me. I used this instead and it worked fine: `(Get-Content myFile.txt) -replace 'foo', 'bar' | Out-File -encoding ASCII myFile.txt` (this is for replacing the text 'foo' with the text 'bar' in the entire file. This was taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/20999154/4441211 – Eyal Gerber Dec 08 '21 at 09:13

score 110 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '23 at 15:25

110

sed (and its ilk) are contained within several packages of Unix commands.

Cygwin works but is gigantic.
UnxUtils is much slimmer.
GnuWin32 is another port that works.
Another alternative is AT&T Research's UWIN system.
MSYS from MinGw is yet another option.
Windows Subsystem for Linux is a most "native" option, but it's not installed on Windows by default; it has sed, grep etc. out of the box, though.
https://github.com/mbuilov/sed-windows offers recent 4.3 and 4.4 versions, which support -z option unlike listed upper ports

If you don't want to install anything and your system ain't a Windows Server one, then you could use a scripting language (VBScript e.g.) for that. Below is a gross, off-the-cuff stab at it. Your command line would look like

cscript //NoLogo sed.vbs s/(oldpat)/(newpat)/ < inpfile.txt > outfile.txt

where oldpat and newpat are Microsoft vbscript regex patterns. Obviously I've only implemented the substitute command and assumed some things, but you could flesh it out to be smarter and understand more of the sed command-line.

Dim pat, patparts, rxp, inp
pat = WScript.Arguments(0)
patparts = Split(pat,"/")
Set rxp = new RegExp
rxp.Global = True
rxp.Multiline = False
rxp.Pattern = patparts(1)
Do While Not WScript.StdIn.AtEndOfStream
  inp = WScript.StdIn.ReadLine()
  WScript.Echo rxp.Replace(inp, patparts(2))
Loop

edited Aug 21 '23 at 15:25

StarGeek

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answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:37

b w

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This is not exactly what I want however I beleave that the dependency upon VBS is the most lightest solution. – Jakub Šturc Sep 24 '08 at 16:08
Anyway thank you a lot and all others for answers. – Jakub Šturc Sep 24 '08 at 16:16
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GnuWin32 _is_ a native solution, if by native you mean designed to run in the "normal" windows environment (unlike CygWin). Give them a try, and you'll start expecting them to be on EVERY windows system you use. !!! – Michael Paulukonis May 26 '09 at 13:09
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Works for my case! Also, don't forget "//NoLogo" cscript option. – Marko Dumic Jun 21 '10 at 14:38
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If this is "off-the-cuff", wonder what your other code looks like! Amazing, thanks. – Sabuncu Jul 14 '11 at 07:10
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@dbenham You're adding links to your own scripts in others' answers, and phrasing it as if to show support for it? How is that anything other than spam? – Sep 25 '13 at 17:08
@hvd - I don't normally add content to other's answers. However, I think the added info deserves to be more than a comment, but isn't worthy of a stand-alone answer to this question. The linked utility is an axtension of the VBS ideas already presented in this answer, but implemented as JScript instead of VBS. It is an example of how the idea could be "fleshed out", so I certainly don't consider it spam. But I'll admit, I did consider some might object, so this was a bit of an experiment. If the OP or general community objects, I won't mind if it is rolled back. – dbenham Sep 25 '13 at 18:01
@dbenham - my take on refinements or derivative answers is that they should be comments, and let them get upvoted to the moon. I can accept that you feel it's an "update," but it feels a bit like you hijacked my answer. That said, your code is interesting and i'll take a look at it. So, thanks i guess. :) – b w Sep 26 '13 at 14:42
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@hvd - Based on Bill's understandable sentiment, I've reconsidered, and rolled back my edit. That was a failed experiment, so I won't be doing this again :) I only wish an edit rollback were a true rollback. – dbenham Sep 26 '13 at 15:53
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A similar regex search and replace utility can be done with JScript. The advantage of JScript over VBScript is it can be easily combined with batch in a single script, making the utility easier to use in a batch or command line context. [A robust hybrid JScript/batch utility called REPL.BAT is available](http://stackoverflow.com/a/16735079/1012053). It has many command line options. Full documentation is embedded within the script. It certainly doesn't have full sed capability, but even so, it is quite powerfull. – dbenham Sep 26 '13 at 15:54
@dbenham - you're a gentleman and a scholar. +1 and +1. I **do** like your jscript solution, though i'm going to have to take some time to digest it. Very interesting. – b w Sep 26 '13 at 17:41
Don't work if you have binary content. Works perfectly with sed in GnuWin32. – JoeBilly Apr 02 '14 at 08:53
@JoeBilly - True, but OP asks for a native command line solution. GnuWin32 sed is not. – b w Apr 02 '14 at 15:57
Chocolatey has had this for a while now: https://chocolatey.org/packages/sed which is the GNU sed and includes the `-z` / `--null-data` option. I just checked; currently it installs `sed.exe` which is binary the same as https://github.com/mbuilov/sed-windows/blob/cafe68124fb8f01db3fb1d9ea586f8f6a72d6917/sed-4.5-x64.exe – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers Jul 17 '19 at 08:58

score 23 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:05

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UnxUtils provides sed for Win32, as does GNUWin32.

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:05

Adam Hughes

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score 18 · Answer 4 · edited May 02 '13 at 17:20

If you don't want to install anything (I assume you want to add the script into some solution/program/etc that will be run in other machines), you could try creating a vbs script (lets say, replace.vbs):

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

strFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
strOldText = Wscript.Arguments(1)
strNewText = Wscript.Arguments(2)

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading)

strText = objFile.ReadAll
objFile.Close
strNewText = Replace(strText, strOldText, strNewText)

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForWriting)
objFile.Write strNewText
objFile.Close

And you run it like this:

cscript replace.vbs "C:\One.txt" "Robert" "Rob"

Which is similar to the sed version provided by "bill weaver", but I think this one is more friendly in terms of special (' > < / ) characters.

Btw, I didn't write this, but I can't recall where I got it from.

score 16 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 05 '13 at 12:35

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> (Get-content file.txt) | Foreach-Object {$_ -replace "^SourceRegexp$", "DestinationString"} | Set-Content file.txt

This is behaviour of

sed -i 's/^SourceRegexp$/DestinationString/g' file.txt

answered Nov 05 '13 at 12:35

krogon

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It works perfectly. Note: the parenthesis on "get-content" ensure that the file will not be in use later when "set-content" will be called. – Kafumanto May 24 '17 at 17:48
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is something similar possible in cmd? in understand this is for pwsh only – Ferroao Jan 09 '20 at 11:27
is 'SourceRegexp' ment to be substituded by any possible regex? does that really works in power shell? – scjorge Feb 27 '20 at 16:40

Rob Kam · Answer 6 · 2009-05-26T20:39:16.150

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There is Super Sed an enhanced version of sed. For Windows this is a standalone .exe, intended for running from the command line.

edited May 26 '09 at 20:39

answered May 26 '09 at 17:49

Rob Kam

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score 8 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 18 '12 at 21:23

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Try fart.exe. It's a Find-and-replace-text utility that can be used in command batch programs.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fart-it/

answered Jul 18 '12 at 21:23

Colin Nicholls

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If I really can't use a *nix like shell, I prefer this since it's a small standalone exe with no dependencies. – Qben Oct 01 '12 at 12:32
fart :'DDDD and fart-it :'DDD ... I like programming :'DDDD – Andreas Covidiot Sep 09 '22 at 16:42

score 8 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:11

8

You could try powershell. There are get-content and set-content commandlets build in that you could use.

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:11

James Boother

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Those are probably the two things in PowerShell that contribute least to what `sed` does ;-). The `-replace` operator is probably a better suggestion. – Joey Apr 21 '10 at 08:51

score 7 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:11

I use Cygwin. I run into a lot of people that do not realize that if you put the Cygwin binaries on your PATH, you can use them from within the Windows Command shell. You do not have to run Cygwin's Bash.

You might also look into Windows Services for Unix available from Microsoft (but only on the Professional and above versions of Windows).

score 5 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:03

5

You could install Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) and use sed from there.

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:03

robintw

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Booji Boy · Answer 11 · 2012-12-07T21:21:48.533

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edlin or edit

plus there is Windows Services for Unix which comes with many unix tools for windows. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/interopmigration/bb380242.aspx

Update 12/7/12 In Windows 2003 R2, Windows 7 & Server 2008, etc. the above is replaced by the Subsystem for UNIX-Based Applications (SUA) as an add-on. But you have to download the utilities: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2391

edited Dec 07 '12 at 21:21

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:03

Booji Boy

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Both don't exist anymore on 64-bit versions of Windows. – Joey Apr 21 '10 at 08:51

score 5 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 30 '21 at 00:20

There is a helper batch file for Windows called repl.bat which has much of the ability of SED but doesn't require any additional download or installation. It is a hybrid batch file that uses Jscript to implement the features and so is swift, and doesn't suffer from the usual poison characters of batch processing and handles blank lines with ease.

Download repl from - https://www.dropbox.com/s/qidqwztmetbvklt/repl.bat

Alternative link - https://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6044

The author is @dbenham from stack overflow and dostips.com

Another helper batch file called findrepl.bat gives the Windows user much of the capabilty of GREP and is also based on Jscript and is likewise a hybrid batch file. It shares the benefits of repl.bat

Download findrepl from - https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfdldmcb6vwi9xc/findrepl.bat

The author is @aacini from stack overflow and dostips.com

The dropbox link for repl is down. Do you have a secondary link? — Vishal Anand, Apr 03 '19 at 17:43

score 3 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:03

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You could look at GNU Tools, they provide (amongst other things) sed on windows.

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:03

Linor

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score 3 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:08

As far as I know nothing like sed is bundled with windows. However, sed is available for Windows in several different forms, including as part of Cygwin, if you want a full POSIX subsystem, or as a Win32 native executable if you want to run just sed on the command line.

Sed for Windows (GnuWin32 Project)

If it needs to be native to Windows then the only other thing I can suggest would be to use a scripting language supported by Windows without add-ons, such as VBScript.

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:06

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Cygwin works, but these utilities are also available. Just plop them on your drive, put the directory into your path, and you have many of your friendly unix utilities. Lighterweight IMHO that Cygwin (although that works just as well).

answered Sep 24 '08 at 14:06

Mark

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bryan kennedy · Answer 16 · 2015-01-01T14:48:51.307

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I needed a sed tool that worked for the Windows cmd.exe prompt. Eric Pement's port of sed to a single DOS .exe worked great for me.

It's pretty well documented.

edited Jan 01 '15 at 14:48

answered Apr 24 '13 at 15:17

bryan kennedy

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The question is about **Windows** (cmd.exe) not about DOS – Jan 01 '15 at 08:51
@royhowie: I see. Although some of these answers may be useful to somebody, I agree that the question itself isn't really suitable for SO. OTOH, I don't feel qualified to recommend wholesale deletion. – PM 2Ring Jan 01 '15 at 09:30
In this situation I think it would be difficult to include the essential parts of the answer, since the essential part is an .exe file that is hosted on the linked page. I totally understand the worry about link-rot, I'm just unsure how I could make this self-contained to SO. – bryan kennedy Jan 01 '15 at 14:52
Thanks for the catch, a_horse_with_no_name. I was being sloppy with my language. I edited my comment to fix the problem you pointed out. – bryan kennedy Jan 01 '15 at 14:53

Is there any sed like utility for cmd.exe?

16 Answers16

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