1. Correct the description of the g command to match POSIX and our

implementation; it was oversimplified and arguably incorrect.
2. Explicitely compare the behaviour of empty command lists for g,
empty command lists for G, and empty commands because these subtle
differences are quite confusing.
3. Say more precisely what the v and V commands do, avoiding the
fuzzy wording "similar".
All these issues were first pointed out by martijn@.
Feedback and OK martijn@; "diff reads ok" jmc@ on an earlier version.

1 files changed, 27 insertions, 21 deletions

diff --git a/bin/ed/ed.1 b/bin/ed/ed.1
index aeedd8d5ca3..ec8d1c25955 100644
--- a/bin/ed/ed.1
+++ b/bin/ed/ed.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\"	$OpenBSD: ed.1,v 1.73 2019/07/15 17:57:48 schwarze Exp $
+.\"	$OpenBSD: ed.1,v 1.74 2019/07/20 15:28:54 schwarze Exp $
 .\"
 .\" Copyright (c) 1993 Andrew Moore, Talke Studio.
 .\" All rights reserved.
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: July 15 2019 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: July 20 2019 $
 .Dt ED 1
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -369,15 +369,16 @@ is not specified, then the default unescaped filename is printed.
 .Ar re No / Ar command-list
 .Xc
 .Sm on
-Applies
+Mark each addressed line matching the regular expression
+.Ar re
+for modification.
+The current address is set to each marked line in turn, and then the
 .Ar command-list
-to each of the addressed lines matching a regular expression
-.Ar re .
-The current address is set to the line currently matched before
-command-list is executed.
-At the end of the
-.Ic g
-command, the current address is set to the last line affected by command-list.
+is executed each time.
+The command-list can change the current line number,
+and it is not changed back after the command-list ended.
+When a marked line is changed, it is unmarked
+and the command-list won't be executed for it any more.
 If no lines were matched,
 the current line number remains unchanged.
 .Pp
@@ -396,8 +397,14 @@ An empty
 .Ar command-list
 is equivalent to a
 .Ic p
-command.
-In this case, the trailing slash can be omitted.
+command \(em unlike for the
+.Cm G
+command, where an empty command-list does nothing, and unlike an empty
+command, which is equivalent to the command
+.Cm +p .
+If the
+.Ar command-list
+is empty, the trailing slash can be omitted.
 .Sm off
 .It (1,$) Ic G No / Ar re No /
 .Sm on
@@ -620,24 +627,23 @@ is its own inverse.
 .Pf / Ar command-list
 .Xc
 .Sm on
-Applies
+The same as the
+.Ic g
+command, except that it applies
 .Ar command-list
-to each of the addressed lines not matching a regular expression
+to each of the addressed lines not matching the regular expression
 .Ar re .
-This is similar to the
-.Ic g
-command.
 .Sm off
 .It Xo
 .Pf (1,$) Ic V No /
 .Ar re No /
 .Xc
 .Sm on
-Interactively edits the addressed lines not matching a regular expression
-.Ar re .
-This is similar to the
+The same as the
 .Ic G
-command.
+command, except that it interactively edits the addressed lines
+not matching the regular expression
+.Ar re .
 .It (1,$) Ns Ic w Ar file
 Writes the addressed lines to
 .Ar file .