Hi, On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 13:24, Joseph L. Casale<JCasale at activenetwerx.com> wrote: > Hey guys, > I am trying to make sed append every line containing a string with another line. > problem is the appended line needs to start with a tab: > # sed -i '/string/a \tstuff\t\t\tmorestuff' file > Obviously \t or \x09 etc doesn't get interpreted unless there are other characters > before it? How can I get this to begin with a <tab>? Hi, The "a" command expects to be followed by a "\", so it's eating the one in your first "\t". If you add another "\" it seems to work as you want it to: $ echo string | sed '/string/a \\tstuff\t\t\tmorestuff' string stuff morestuff $ HTH, Filipe