a command/script for replacing a word with another

pixellany · 12-01-2005, 12:13 PM

sed

Your example is the most basic use of this very powerful command.
Here's the general form:

sed 's/oldword/newword/g' <oldfile >newfile

This reads from oldfile and replaces ALL occurences of oldword with newword. It then writes to newfile.
You are now standing on the tip of a very large iceberg---here is the best tutorial on sed that I have ever seen: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html

Good Luck

schneidz · 12-01-2005, 12:14 PM

try:

Code:

sed s/word/new-word/g  file.txt >> new-file.txt

'man sed' for more info.
_______________

sorry pixel, 'mid-air collision'

(you posted right before i hit submit)

reddazz · 12-01-2005, 12:16 PM

You can use sed. e.g.

Code:

$sed -e "s/oldword/newword/g" filename > filename2

The syntax maybe slightly different on Linux. I ran that on FreeBSD and it works fine.

keefaz · 12-01-2005, 12:17 PM

Or to edit the file 'in place'

Code:

sed -i -e 's/oldword/newword/' filename

reddazz · 12-01-2005, 12:20 PM

Got beaten to it. There are many helpful people around here.

jaakkop · 12-02-2005, 11:03 AM

keefaz · 12-02-2005, 12:12 PM

Use other separators ?

Code:

sed -i "s#word#$INSTDIR#g" file.sh

jaakkop · 12-02-2005, 01:11 PM

eddiebaby1023 · 12-02-2005, 03:12 PM

If you need to include shell variable in the patterns, use double quotes. You can use pretty much any character as the pattern delimiter, the first character after the 's' is taken to be the delimiter. To use the delimiter character in a pattern prefix it with a backslash - you can write some pretty confusing patterns this way!

linmix · 12-02-2005, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pixellany

here is the best tutorial on sed that I have ever seen: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html

Good Luck

Great link! I'm trying to get to grips with sed mysel and it looks like I might learn some nice tricks there.

I might even learn why sed doesn't appear to work correctly with examples I have from the book in my sig.

zahadumy · 12-03-2005, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

here is the best tutorial on sed that I have ever seen: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html

Do you have any links with tutorials?

This tutorial is great and I would be glad to read any tutorial like this, if you have more links...

Thank you.

linmix · 12-04-2005, 07:02 AM

Browse through the parent directory of that link. There's a couple more:
http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/

pixellany · 12-04-2005, 10:17 AM

I don't generally keep track of links like this--it is so much easier to get it thru Google.
For example, when I search on "sed", I see something like Grymoire and recognize it.

Like Microsoft, Google is making us soft and lazy. I guess the big difference is that we don't have to PAY Google to do this for (to?) us......

zahadumy · 12-04-2005, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

I don't generally keep track of links like this--it is so much easier to get it thru Google.

Let's say you search some "sed" examples. You will find through Google the same few simple examples on almost every site. This becomes annoying after a time. That's why I like to have bookmarks, links where you find everything, or at least a lot of documentation. I made a bookmark for sed and awk on that site and I'm pretty sure I will never lose time searching for these 2.