sed how to escape [

Question

eg. txtfile is just [

sed -i 's/[/linux/' txtfile (this gives an error unbalanced brackets ([])) after running the command I wanted to replace [ to linux

I tried \\ at the front, but I don't think it is correct and searched a while couldn't find anything useful. Thanks

Please don't use -i with sed unless you know your sed expression actually works. — Kusalananda, May 08 '20 at 06:09

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited May 08 '20 at 06:16

10

All you need is escape the [ using \:

sed -i 's/\[/linux/' txtfile

For completeness, another alternative is to put that [ inside a [...] bracket expression:

sed -i 's/[[]/linux/' txtfile

edited May 08 '20 at 06:16

answered May 08 '20 at 06:00

GMaster

1 Answers1