In the lists below, the sed commands are grouped by function and are described tersely. Full descriptions, including syntax and examples, can be found afterward in the "Alphabetical Summary" section.
a\ | Append text after a line. | 
c\ | Replace text (usually a text block). | 
i\ | Insert text before a line. | 
d | Delete lines. | 
s | Make substitutions. | 
y | Translate characters (like Unix tr). | 
= | Display line number of a line. | 
l | Display control characters in ASCII. | 
p | Display the line. | 
n | Skip current line and go to line below. | 
r | Read another file's contents into the output stream. | 
w | Write input lines to another file. | 
q | Quit the sed script (no further output). | 
h | Copy into hold space; wipe out what's there. | 
H | Copy into hold space; append to what's there. | 
g | Get the hold space back; wipe out the destination line. | 
G | Get the hold space back; append to the pattern space. | 
x | Exchange contents of hold space and pattern space. | 
b | Branch to label or to end of script. | 
t | Same as b, but branch only after substitution. | 
:label | Label branched to by t or b. | 
N | Read another line of input (creates embedded newline). | 
D | Delete up to the embedded newline. | 
P | Print up to the embedded newline. |