sed command 'invalid command' problem in macOS

Question

I got some hint that MacOs has different command when using 'sed'.

The original command I have to do was like:

sed -n  '1~36p' /filename

What I got is changing

sed [-an] command [file...]

into

sed [-an] [-e command] [-f command_file] [file...]

so I changed my command as

sed -n -e '1~36p' -f /filename

But it came out with different error like

sed: 1: "1~36p ": invalid command code ~

Did I got wrong command? I want to know how to change properly for Mac.

Check your file for unprintable and invisible characters. sed: 1: "1~36p ": - there is a space after p in error message. — KamilCuk
– KamilCuk, Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 9:13
~ is a GNU sed extension and is not available with the default sed that comes with macOS. Install GNU sed with, e.g., Macports or Homebrew if you absolutely need this. — Renaud Pacalet
– Renaud Pacalet, Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 9:18
first~step form for selecting lines is a GNU extension. You need GNU sed (or use awk). — M. Nejat Aydin
– M. Nejat Aydin, Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 9:19
Also, the argument of -f option is a file that contains sed commands to be run. It is not the input file to be processed. — M. Nejat Aydin
– M. Nejat Aydin, Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 9:33
Also, the -e optional unless you're supplying more than one command (e.g. sed -e '1-3 d' -e 's/this/that/' /filename), or supplying arguments in a nonstandard order, or something like that. In other words, the -e and -f are both irrelevant here. The only problem is that ~ is not supported. — Gordon Davisson
– Gordon Davisson, Commented Dec 1, 2022 at 9:36

Mania · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-01 09:17:47Z

2

The ~ is a GNU extension to sed. You can use sed -n '1~36p' on macOS, but you'll have to use a different command to get the same effect. The easiest way is to use awk: awk 'NR % 36 == 1' /filename

answered Dec 1, 2022 at 9:17

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