Ed-0.2
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Ed-0.2

The Ed package contains a spartan line editor.

Approximate build time:  0.1 SBU
Required disk space:     3.1 MB

Ed installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed.

Installation of Ed

[Note] Note

Ed isn't something which many people use. It's installed here because it can be used by the patch program if you encounter an ed-based patch file. This happens rarely because diff-based patches are preferred these days.

Ed normally uses the mktemp function to create temporary files in /tmp, but this function contains a vulnerability (see the section on Temporary Files in http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/avoid-race.html). Apply the following patch to make Ed use mkstemp instead, a secure way to create temporary files:

patch -Np1 -i ../ed-0.2-mkstemp.patch

Now prepare Ed for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=""

The meaning of the configure option:

  • --exec-prefix="": This forces the programs to be installed into the /bin directory. Having the programs available there is useful in the event of the /usr partition being unavailable.

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the package:

make install

Contents of Ed

Installed programs: ed and red (link to ed)

Short descriptions

ed is a line-oriented text editor. It can be used to create, display, modify and otherwise manipulate text files.

red is a restricted ed -- it can only edit files in the current directory and cannot execute shell commands.

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