title: Does . really match any character?
body: <p>I am using a very simple sed script removing comments : <code>sed -e 's/--.*$//'</code></p>
  
  <p>It works great until non-ascii characters are present in a comment, e.g.: <code>-- °</code>.
  This line does not match the regular expression and is not substituted.</p>
  
  <p>Any idea how to get <code>.</code> to really match any character?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>Solution :</strong></p>
  
  <p>Since <code>file</code> says it is an iso8859 text, <code>LANG</code> variable environment must be changed before calling <code>sed</code> : 
  <code>LANG=iso8859 sed -e 's/--.*//' -</code></p>