using sed with variables

aristosv · 08-25-2015, 04:06 PM

I am running these commands to modify a few files

Code:

/bin/sed -i -e "s/ClientX/$client/g" /etc/hosts
/bin/sed -i -e "s/ClientX/$client/g" /etc/hostname
/bin/sed -i -e "s/5040/$port/g" /etc/beatbox/start
/bin/sed -i -e "s/generic/$group/g" /etc/beatbox/start
/bin/sed -i -e "s/ClientX Not Defined/$client/g" /etc/passwd

The files are modified, but where the output of the variables should be, there's only empty space. For example/etc/hostname is empty. It should have the output of $client.

I know my variables are ok because I get the output below.

Code:

if [ -z "$port" ]; then echo "var is unset"; else echo "var is set to '$port'"; fi
var is set to '5074'
root@ClientX:~# if [ -z "$group" ]; then echo "var is unset"; else echo "var is set to '$group'"; fi
var is set to 'generic'
root@ClientX:~# if [ -z "$client" ]; then echo "var is unset"; else echo "var is set to '$client'"; fi
var is set to 'Client024'

Is my sed syntax wrong?

schneidz · 08-25-2015, 04:13 PM

what does this yield:

Code:

echo client = $client
/bin/sed -e "s/ClientX/$client/g" /etc/hostname

aristosv · 08-25-2015, 04:43 PM

Code:

echo client = $client
client = Client024

Code:

/bin/sed -e "s/ClientX/$client/g" /etc/hostname
<empty line here>

schneidz · 08-25-2015, 04:49 PM

this worx for me:

Code:

[schneidz@hyper ~]$ cat aristosv.txt 
hello-world-ClientX-l33t-h4x0rz
[schneidz@hyper ~]$ client=Client024
[schneidz@hyper ~]$ sed -e "s/ClientX/$client/g" aristosv.txt 
hello-world-Client024-l33t-h4x0rz
[schneidz@hyper ~]$ sed --version
sed (GNU sed) 4.2.2