Multiline sed quesion

jax8 · 03-31-2009, 03:15 PM

SOLVED

You need a \ at the end of each line like this.

Code:

sedString='\
Many\
lines\
of \
code \
that \
go \
for\
a \
long\
time\
'
sed -i 's|that| a\'"$sedString"' |' /home/jack/myfile

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Say I have the following in my shell script:

Code:

sedString='
Many
lines
of 
code 
that 
go 
for
a 
long
time
'
sed -i 's|that| a\'"$sedString"' |' /home/jack/myfile

When I run this I get an error:
sed: -e expression #1, char 36: unterminated `s' command

How do I fix this?

pixellany · 03-31-2009, 03:28 PM

So, you want to replace the first occurrence of the word "that" with the contents of sedString (plus the spaces and the "a").

I'm not sure of all the nuances of this, but first try using just double-quotes--like so:

Code:

sed -i "s|that| a$sedString |" /home/jack/myfile

The next concern might be that it will fail if sedString contains the "|" character.

pixellany · 03-31-2009, 03:42 PM

I tried it with a "multi-line" string and it failed, but it works with a simple string---eg "sedString=foo"

I'm stumped for the moment......