title: sed command difference in behaviour between each OS and its implication
body: <p>I have come across a strange but valid difference between the working behavior of <code>sed</code> command. To be frank this has come as a very big surprise to me.   </p>
  
  <p>Now let us look at the man pages of <code>sed</code> of SUSE Linux and HP (IA64).  </p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>SUSE Linux:</strong>  </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>DESCRIPTION
           Sed  is a stream editor.  A stream editor is used to perform basic text
           transformations on an input stream (a file or input from  a  pipeline).
           While  in  some  ways similar to an editor which permits scripted edits
           (such as ed), sed works by making only one pass over the input(s),  and
           is consequently more efficient.  But it is sed's ability to filter text
           in a pipeline which particularly distinguishes it from other  types  of
           editors.  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>HP IA64 :</strong>  </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>DESCRIPTION
    sed copies the named text files (standard input default) to the standard output, edited according to a script containing up to 100 commands. Only complete input lines are processed. <strong>Any input text at the end of a file that is not terminated by a new-line character is ignored</strong>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The highlighted text, seems to be a major difference in working behavior. So all my scripts started failing in the HP-UX IA64 machine during porting.  </p>
  
  <p>Question :<br>
  a. Isn't there any underlying standard that force each vendor to have basic conformity with the implementation?  </p>
  
  <p>b. In case there are some commands which confirm and others which cannot confirm, can anyone post the list that adhere to standards.  </p>
  
  <p>c. Now I have a lot of such command that are used as part of my project scripting. What is the best way to check/avoid such kind of error - apart from testing each and every command for all scenario?  </p>
  
  <p>Basically In such scenario I would be facing problem confirming software <em>working for all scenarios</em> across vendor platforms.</p>