[SOLVED] Command to edit text in several files

black-clover · 10-18-2018, 02:16 PM

Hi,

let's say that I want to edit a bunch of files (txt or html) within the same directory and change a given string called <old-line> to <new-line> in all of them at once.

Which command line could I use to do that?

average_user · 10-18-2018, 02:31 PM

black-clover · 10-18-2018, 02:33 PM

this seems to have worked:

Code:

grep -r -l <old> * | xargs sed -i 's/<old>/<new>/g'

average_user · 10-18-2018, 02:37 PM

Consider using xargs with -r because if no matches are found you get this:

Code:

$ grep -r -l  stuff * | xargs  sed -i 's/<old>/<new>/g'
sed: no input files

average_user · 10-18-2018, 02:41 PM

And use NULL as a delimiter in case you had a file with a whitespace:

Code:

grep -r -l -Z  stuff * | xargs  -0r sed -i 's/anything/something/g'