3.5. Debugging sed scripts

The following two debuggers should make it easier to understand how sed scripts operate. They can save hours of grief when trying to determine the problems with a sed script.

(1) sd (sed debugger), by Brian Hiles

This debugger runs under a Unix shell, is powerful, and is easy to use. sd has conditional breakpoints and spypoints of the pattern space and hold space, on any scope defined by regex match and/or script line number. It can be semi-automated, can save diagnostic reports, and shows potential problems with a sed script before it tries to execute it. The script is robust and requires the Unix shell utilities plus the Bourne shell or Korn shell to execute.

       https://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/scripts/sd.ksh.txt (2003)
       https://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/scripts/sd.sh.txt  (1998)

(2) sedsed, by Aurelio Jargas

This debugger requires Python to run it, and it uses your own version of sed, whatever that may be. It displays the current input line, the pattern space, and the hold space, before and after each sed command is executed.

       https://sedsed.sourceforge.net