ed(1): escaping brackets
========================

(July 30th, 2026)

I recently saw this video, which discusses various ways of escaping parentheses in vim, in cases when we want to choose which ones to escape. But what about in ed(1)?

We can use a global interactive command (G) to do this. This finds each line matching a pattern, and pauses on it for us to enter a command. Just like in the video, we will use the pattern

/[]()[]/

to match every instance of ], (, ), or [. Also like the video, we will use the replacement \\&, which first inserts a literal escape character, then whatever was matched.

Now for the ed(1) specific part. If we type an s on its own, it means to repeat the last substitution. However we can change the flags! For example, if we do sg, it will escape all brackets; and we can do something like

s1\
s3

to replace just the first and third brackets. In a global interactive command, we can also just hit enter instead of a command to leave the line the same. Here's a complete example of bracket escaping:

*,p
All of these should be escaped: ()[]
But I only want to escape these two: []   (so not the ones surrounding this text)
And NONE of these shall be escaped: ()[]
Here's some text with no brackets for demonstration purposes.
Lastly, I want to escape (for obscure reasons) just this single closing square bracket: ]
Have a good day! :)
*G/[]()[]
All of these should be escaped: ()[]
s//\\&/g
But I only want to escape these two: []   (so not the ones surrounding this text)
s1\
s2
And NONE of these shall be escaped: ()[]

Lastly, I want to escape (for obscure reasons) just this single closing square bracket: ]
s3
Have a good day! :)

*,p
All of these should be escaped: \(\)\[\]
But I only want to escape these two: \[\]   (so not the ones surrounding this text)
And NONE of these shall be escaped: ()[]
Here's some text with no brackets for demonstration purposes.
Lastly, I want to escape (for obscure reasons) just this single closing square bracket: \]
Have a good day! :)

~/ed-brackets