Sed Command to Print Matching Lines - Unix / Linux

We use sed command mostly to do operations like search and replace. We can also use the sed command just like a grep to print only the matching lines.

The syntax of sed command to print matching lines is shown below:

sed -n '/pattern/p' filename

The syntax of sed command to print lines using line addresses is:

sed -n 'Np' filename

Examples:

Create the following file in your unix or linux machine:

unix virtual server
linux virtual hosting
fedora os

1. Display lines matching a pattern

The following examples prints the lines that contain the pattern virtual using sed and grep commands.

> grep 'virtual' filename
> sed -n '/virtual/p' filename

2. Print lines with specific line addresses.

The below sed command displays the line with number 2:

sed -n '2p' filename