sed: how to insert tab?

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,

I'm using the following to insert lines into file:

    sed $\{rowNr\}i'\\
    first row\\
    second row\\
    third row\\
    ' file.txt

How can I add tab in front of each added line? "\t" or actual TAB does not seem to work?

Thanks!

2

check if you can try the possibilities given by cfajohnson here

3

Hi.

Here are 3 ways of doing it with GNU sed:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate insert lines, TABs with sed.

set -o nounset
echo

debug=":"
debug="echo"

## Use local command version for the commands in this demonstration.

echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version bash sed cat

echo

# Create test file.
cat >data1 <<'EOF'
alpha
beta
gamma
EOF

echo " Input file:"
cat -n data1

echo
echo " Results from sed:"
sed 2i'\
\tfirst row (used \\t)\
        second row (used TAB: ^I)\
\o011third row (used \\o011, escaped octal)\
' data1 |
cat -n

exit 0

Producing:

% ./s1

(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
GNU bash 2.05b.0
GNU sed version 4.1.2
cat (coreutils) 5.2.1

 Input file:
     1  alpha
     2  beta
     3  gamma

 Results from sed:
     1  alpha
     2          first row (used \t)
     3          second row (used TAB: ^I)
     4          third row (used \o011, escaped octal)
     5
     6  beta
     7  gamma

Best wishes ... cheers, drl