[SOLVED] replace text inside all ' (single quotes)

agarrett5 · 11-06-2013, 04:08 AM

How do I inside sed replace all text inside single quotes? What I have so far is. sed '/userPassword /{N;N;s/$/ test/}' shadow.file > shadowtemp.file

The single quotes comes in a line where there is userPassword, but the string I am replacing I do not know, but I want to change it to something I do know (test). I am writing it to a new file.

It is only the text in single quotes I want to change

druuna · 11-06-2013, 04:45 AM

Use double quotes instead of single quotes: sed "s///" instead of sed 's///'

You don't provide an example of the original, so here's a general form:

Code:

sed "s/'.*'/'foobar'/" infile

Sed is greedy, so this example will work when there is just one set of single quotes.

Example:

Code:

$ cat infile
userPassword='foo1'
userPassword='foo2' userPassword='foo3'

$ sed "/userPassword/s/'.*'/'bar'/" infile
userPassword='bar'
userPassword='bar'

The second line shows sed's greediness.

agarrett5 · 11-06-2013, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Use double quotes instead of single quotes: sed "s///" instead of sed 's///'

You don't provide an example of the original, so here's a general form:

Code:

sed "s/'.*'/'foobar'/" infile

Sed is greedy, so this example will work when there is just one set of single quotes.

Example:

Code:

$ cat infile
userPassword='foo1'
userPassword='foo2' userPassword='foo3'

$ sed "/userPassword/s/'.*'/'bar'/" infile
userPassword='bar'
userPassword='bar'

The second line shows sed's greediness.

Here is an example of original:
zmprov ma example@jarsat.pl userPassword '{crypt}example'

to change to

zmprov ma example@jarsat.pl userPassword 'test'

Sorry for not giving an example before

I want to output the changed file to shadowtemp.file and keep the original shadow.file intact.

Firerat · 11-06-2013, 04:56 AM

I find your description very confusing , I have no certainty of what you require

please provide an input sample, as well as your desired output

for example, ( loosely based on your description )

Input

Code:

This is some random text
this line contains 'a random string of characters ' in single quotes

Desired Output

Code:

This is some random text
this line contains 'test' in single quotes

this sed would achieve that

Code:

sed "s/'.*'/'test'/" Input

Edit, I should have refreshed before posting

druuna · 11-06-2013, 04:56 AM

Have you tried playing around with my suggestion?

Code:

$ sed "/userPassword/s/'.*'/'test'/" shadow.file > shadowtemp.file

agarrett5 · 11-06-2013, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Have you tried playing around with my suggestion?

Code:

$ sed "/userPassword/s/'.*'/'test'/" shadow.file > shadowtemp.file

Drunna, thats perfect. Firerat, sorry I will try to make it clearer next time.

Firerat · 11-06-2013, 05:02 AM

druuna's works fine

Code:

This is some random text
this line contains 'a random string of characters ' in single quotes
zmprov ma example@jarsat.pl userPassword '{crypt}example'

Code:

sed "/userPassword/s/'.*'/'test'/"

results in

Code:

This is some random text
this line contains 'a random string of characters ' in single quotes
zmprov ma example@jarsat.pl userPassword 'test'

the rest is just basic redirection ( shadow.file > shadowtemp.file )