sd Plugin

Intuitive find & replace CLI — sed alternative with regex support. ~11x faster than sed.

Commands

Find & Replace

• sd replace file — Find and replace in a file (in-place)
• sd replace run — Find and replace across one or more files
• sd replace preview — Preview changes in a file without modifying
• sd replace fixed — Fixed string mode (no regex), in-place
• sd replace across — Cross-line matching (dot matches newlines), in-place
• sd self version — Print sd version

Args (all structured commands)

• --find — Pattern (regex, or literal string for fixed)
• --replace — Replacement string (supports capture groups: $1, $2)
• --file — File to operate on
• --files — File(s) for replace run

Usage Examples

• "Replace 'foo' with 'bar' in a file"
• "Preview changes before modifying"
• "Replace with regex capture groups"
• "Literal string replace (no regex escaping)"
• "Match across lines in a file"

Installation

cargo install sd
sc plugins install ./plugins/sd --on-conflict replace --json

sc Command Examples

# In-place replacement
sc sd replace file --find "before" --replace "after" --file config.txt

# Preview (no modification)
sc sd replace preview --find "before" --replace "after" --file config.txt

# Fixed literal string (no regex)
sc sd replace fixed --find "hello.world" --replace "hi" --file config.txt

# Capture groups
sc sd replace file --find "(\w+)=(\w+)" --replace "$1: $2" --file env.txt

# Multi-file (via replace run)
sc sd replace run --find "oldname" --replace "newname" --files "*.txt"

# Cross-line (dot matches \n)
sc sd replace across --find "hello.world" --replace "hi universe" --file data.txt

Raw sd examples (via passthrough)

# Trim trailing whitespace
echo "lorem ipsum 23   " | sd '\s+$' ''

# Capture groups on stdin
echo "cargo +nightly watch" | sd '(\w+)\s+\+(\w+)\s+(\w+)' 'cmd: $1, channel: $2, subcmd: $3'

Key Features

• Intuitive syntax (no /g flag needed, replaces all by default)
• JS/Python regex syntax (friendlier than POSIX)
• ~11x faster than sed
• Supports $1, $2 capture group references
• -f s flag makes . match newlines (cross-line patterns)
• -F flag for literal string matching (no regex escaping needed)