sed

Johng · 09-12-2005, 12:03 AM

When using sed to replace text in file(s), how do you use a slash '/' as a text character? As an example, I want to replace the string "index" with "../index"

This expression works:
find -name "*.html" -exec sed -i 's/"index.html"/"..index.html"/g' {} \;

This one does not because there are more than two / in the expression:
find -name "*.html" -exec sed -i 's/"index.html"/"../index.html"/g' {} \;

homey · 09-12-2005, 12:54 AM

You could escape special characters with a \

for example:
cat file.txt
now is the time for all good men

sed -e 's/time/\.\.\/time/' file.txt
now is the ../time for all good men

Tinkster · 09-12-2005, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johng
When using sed to replace text in file(s), how do you use a slash '/' as a text character? As an example, I want to replace the string "index" with "../index"

This expression works:
find -name "*.html" -exec sed -i 's/"index.html"/"..index.html"/g' {} \;

This one does not because there are more than two / in the expression:
find -name "*.html" -exec sed -i 's/"index.html"/"../index.html"/g' {} \;

find -name "*.html" -exec sed -i 's^index.html^\.\./index.html^g' {} \;

Basically sed can accept any character that comes first
after the s as the separator. Thus, if you know that your
text will never contain a caret or a tilde you can easily
use those for seperators.

Cheers,
Tink

CroMagnon · 09-12-2005, 12:57 AM

You should 'escape' the slash by putting a backslash in front of it. e.g:

's/"index.html"/"..\/index.html"/g'

Otherwise, you can use another character as a separator in place of the forward slashes. e.g:

's%"index.html"%"../index.html"%g'

CroMagnon · 09-12-2005, 12:58 AM

Wow, three posts within three minutes of each other

Guess I should use the preview button more often.

Tinkster · 09-12-2005, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by CroMagnon
Wow, three posts within three minutes of each other :)

And two of those from NZ ;}

Cheers,
Tink

Johng · 09-12-2005, 01:21 AM

Thanks guys, Great!

archtoad6 · 09-12-2005, 08:03 PM

I use the ',' (comma) routinely for readability.