Re: GNU sed version 4.2.1 bug?

[Paolo Bonzini]

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 17:59, Joshua Schriver <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have a line in a script:
>
>                sed -ire 's:([^\\]*)\\(.*):<\1 >\n\2\n</\1 >:g' tmpfile
>
> That gives the following error:
> sed: -e expression #1, char 36: invalid reference \2 on `s' command's RHS
>
> When I'm using the -I option.
> Changing the line to the following works without errors:
>                sed -re 's:([^\\]*)\\(.*):<\1 >\n\2\n</\1 >:g'  tmpfile > 
> tfile2
>
> Why would the in-place option make or break the replacement expression?

"re" is being taken as the backup suffix.  Use "-i -re".

Paolo