[SOLVED] Perl Find and replace line in crontab

Sir Todd · 02-14-2012, 12:31 PM

Hi
I am looking for a way to remove a line from crontab using perl.
This is the one liner that I am doing:
/usr/bin/perl -i -p -e "s/0 6 * * 0 /dir1/dir2/dir3/filename -q >/dev/null 2>&1//g" /crontab

but I am getting this sytax error.

Bareword found where operator expected at -e line 1, near "/dir3/filename"
(Missing operator before filename?)
syntax error at -e line 1, near "s/0 6 * * 0 /dir1/dir2"
Search pattern not terminated at -e line 1.

How do i modify this line to remove this line?

firstfire · 02-14-2012, 12:50 PM

Hi.

Replace `s///' by `s@@@':

Code:

/usr/bin/perl -i -p -e "s@0 6 * * 0 /dir1/dir2/dir3/filename -q >/dev/null 2>&1@@g" /crontab

Slashes in path name conflict with s///. Alternatively you can escape all slashes in path name: "\/dir1\/dir2...".

EDIT: Also note that some symbols, such as `*', have special meaning inside regular expressions, so you should esape them if you need literals: `\*' etc.

I'd recommend you to use a unique substring of the string you want to delete, for example:

Code:

/usr/bin/perl -i -p -e "s@.*hourly.*@@g" crontab

to remove

Code:

17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

Cedrik · 02-14-2012, 02:55 PM

Another way to do it (will remove complete line)
(assuming there is only one line containing ' /dir1/dir2/dir3/filename -q ')

Code:

perl -i -ne 'print unless m@/dir1/dir2/dir3/filename -q@' crontab