Kommandolinjediting

Kommandolinjediting is the practice of editing text files or streams using a text-based interface accessed from a command line. It relies on command-driven editors and utilities rather than graphical editors, and is closely tied to shell automation, scripting, and pipelines. The term encompasses both interactive line editors and non-interactive batch-editing tools.

Historically, kommandolinjediting emerged with early Unix editors like ed and ex, evolved through modal editors such as vi and Vim, and expanded to non-interactive tools like sed and awk that perform edits as part of a data processing pipeline. It remains common on servers, embedded systems, and environments without graphical desktops.

Key tools include ed/ex (line editors), vim and other terminal-based editors, and stream editors like sed and awk. In modern practice, many workflows use a combination of interactive editing for manual changes and non-interactive commands for automation, with scripts executing sed -i or awk programs to modify large text sets.

Common techniques involve substituting text, deleting or inserting lines, and transforming fields. Examples include using sed -i 's/old/new/g' file.txt to replace text, using awk to reformat or extract data, or editing within vim to make multiple edits quickly.

Advantages of such editing include speed, reproducibility, and suitability for remote or headless systems. Drawbacks include a steeper learning curve, less visual feedback, and higher risk of syntax errors in complex edits.

As part of core IT skills, kommandolinjediting supports software development, system administration, and data processing, and remains relevant in modern workflows that leverage automation and remote management.