Does the actual work for file.psed, so that single lines can be passed in

def _psed(text,
          before,
          after,
          limit,
          flags):
    '''
    Does the actual work for file.psed, so that single lines can be passed in
    '''
    atext = text
    if limit:
        limit = re.compile(limit)
        comps = text.split(limit)
        atext = ''.join(comps[1:])

    count = 1
    if 'g' in flags:
        count = 0
        flags = flags.replace('g', '')

    aflags = 0
    for flag in flags:
        aflags |= RE_FLAG_TABLE[flag]

    before = re.compile(before, flags=aflags)
    text = re.sub(before, after, atext, count=count)

    return text