Question

How to match a single quote in sed if the expression is enclosed in single quotes:

sed -e '...' 

For example need to match this text:

'foo' 

Answer 1

You can either use:

'texta'textb' (APOSTROPHE inside QUOTATION MARKs) 

or

'texta'\''textb' (APOSTROPHE text APOSTROPHE, then REVERSE SOLIDUS, APOSTROPHE, then APOSTROPHE more text APOSTROPHE) 

I used unicode character names. REVERSE SOLIDUS is more commonly known as backslash.

In the latter case, you close your apostrophe, then shell-quote your apostrophe with a backslash, then open another apostrophe for the rest of the text.