[SOLVED] Replace multi line pattern by text variable in sed

XXLRay · 11-22-2012, 08:33 AM

I have a shell script in which I want do replace a multi line pattern by the text inside a variable using sed (not awk or perl or any other stuff) such that

Code:

...
<!-- ontag -->
foo
bar
foobar
<!-- offtag -->
...

(Yes, it's in an html file)

becomes

Code:

...
<!-- ontag -->
new
multi
line
pattern
<!-- offtag -->
...

What I have so far is:

Code:

FILE="/my/file/name"
ANYVAR="<!-- ontag -->\nnew\nmulti\nline\npattern\n<!-- offtag -->"
sed ':a $!{N;ba}; s/<!-- ontag -->.*<!-- offtag -->/'"${ANYVAR}"'/g' -i $FILE

But this just produces:

Code:

...
${ANYVAR}
...

(It only prints the name of the variable instead of the content)

If I directly insert the pattern instead of a variable like:

Code:

sed ':a $!{N;ba}; s/<!-- ontag -->.*<!-- offtag -->/<!-- ontag -->\nmulti\nline\npattern\n<!-- offtag -->/g' -i $FILE

everything works fine so it seems as if it is just the way I access the variable.

pixellany · 11-22-2012, 09:31 AM

2 things to try:

1. Use weak quotes (") for the whole SED command string---and NO quotes on the expanded variable.

2. Keep the strong quotes on the whole string, and use only the weak quotes on the expanded variable.

XXLRay · 11-22-2012, 10:05 AM

1. offers ${NAVBAR} as replacement

Code:

sed ":a $!{N;ba}; s/<!-- ontag -->.*<!-- offtag -->/${ANYVAR}/g" -i $FILE

2. offers "${NAVBAR}" (with quotes) as replacemment

Code:

sed ':a $!{N;ba}; s/<!-- ontag -->.*<!-- offtag -->/"${ANYVAR}"/g' -i $FILE

Found the working one (at least there was no endless amount of combinations):

Code:

sed ':a $!{N;ba}; s/<!-- ontag -->.*<!-- offtag -->/'${ANYVAR}'/g' -i $FILE