global search and replace?

jkcunningham · 07-23-2002, 01:03 AM

Is there a relatively easy way to search for a string recursively throughout a directory tree and replace it with another string?

It could easily be restricted to files of a certain extension.

Thanks.

neo77777 · 07-23-2002, 01:17 AM

Look at perl scripts, it is a powerfull text editing tool as well

Mik · 07-23-2002, 06:06 AM

I think the easiest way would be to create one simple script to replace a string. Something like:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -lt 3 ]
then
  echo "usage: replace <filename> <searchstring> <replacestring>"
  exit
fi

sed -e "s/$2/$3/g" $1 > $1.~bak
mv $1.~bak $1

And then run one command to search through a directory and replace strings using the script above. Something like:

find . -name "*.txt" -exec \replace {} "some string" "something" \;

It's just a quick script I put together so I can't guarantee that it will work in all cases. But it should work for most files. If it's important data you are gonna be running it on you might want to change the mv into a cp to make sure you still have the backup file in case it goes wrong.

unSpawn · 07-23-2002, 07:08 AM

I use rpl, easy and safe (simulation mode).

jkcunningham · 07-23-2002, 11:23 AM

Thanks.
I'll try them both.

NetworkCriminals · 03-15-2006, 03:43 PM

Just to confirm, RPL works nicely. Tried it just now

I did not bother with scripting, as there are to many things to consider for such a simple procedure.....

best of luck...

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