3. Obtaining and installing sed

3.1 What is the latest version of sed?

The latest officially released version is is 3.02 at the time of this writing.

sed or variant currently runs on all Unix flavours great and small. It has probably also been ported to other systems as the source is freely available thanks to gnu. If so please contact the author of this faq so that others may benefit from this knowledge. It is available at the originators website in either a *.tar.gz format so choose your revision:)

3.2 May I legally run sed?

The UNIX version of sed 3.02 may be used and distributed freely under GNU GPL but for details of any issues related please consult the author of the man pages who should be considered more definative than this faq if any conflict arises. His email address is: ers@snark.thyrsus.com

3.3 What about commercial use of sed?

sed is freely distributed under GNU General Public License so please give credit where due to its authors, and almost certainly will remain to be so in future. Read 'COPYING' for a copy of GNU GPL.

3.4 Where can I obtain sed?

The central site for distributing sed is ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu ftp://ftp.gnu.ai.edu/gnu/sed/.

Some mirrors may be available please email the author of this document should you become aware of it to append to this list. :'))

3.5 How do I install it?

Get the file from a site near you, then unpack it with

gzip -c -d sed-3.02.tar.gz | tar xvf -

or if you are using the .rpm then do a:

#rpm -ivh sed-whatever-rpm-number.rpm

then change into the directory sed-whatever# if building from *.tar.gz, read the file README, and follow the directions in it.

3.6 Where do I get help?

First of all, read the README included which should answer any questions you have regarding the building and compiling of sed. Then read the related mans including those named:sed, egrep, ed, grep, awk, lex, and regexp oh yeah and vi.
Then and only then either contact the author of this document (which is probably not the best idea due to this author receiving 300 - 500 emails daily) or you might try either Usenet, any *NIX group they most likely have heard of the animal ;-) or the author of the man. It is suggested that if you request assistance please have details of the specific problem. Note exhaust as many possibilities as possible before asking for help and consult the search engines/archives to see if the answer is blowing in the cyberwind... @ least that is what she sed :-)

If these resources don't help, you can post to the Usenet newsgroup comp.editors.unix or send mail to the appropriate mailing list for UNIX users.

3.8 Are there any versions for other operating systems than UNIX?

AFAIK other than UNIX the only other confirmed version that sed has been ported to is DOS but you will have to search the main GNU site for their names.

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