sed converting / to \/ - UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

sakthi.abdullah · #1 12-12-2006

Hi all,
I am using sed for converting a string of type /abc/def/gh by \/abc\/def\/gh

[trainee@LINUX ~]$ edu="/home/abc/dec"

When I echo that variable and pass it to sed ,it works fine...
[trainee@LINUX ~]$ echo $edu|sed 's/\//\\\//g'
\/home\/abc\/dec

But When I try to store in a variable , it shows the following error

[trainee@LINUX ~]$ ued=`echo $edu|sed 's/\//\\\//g'`
sed: -e expression #1, char 9: unknown option to `s'

HELP BLEAZ

jim mcnamara · #2 12-12-2006

Code:

echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g'

When you are using sed to work with "/" characters you have to use another delimiter - in this case I picked "#"

sakthi.abdullah · #3 12-12-2006

Can you explain this further because
Usually it's of the form s/old/new/g but sed 's#/#\\/#g' contains only s/.../g

sakthi.abdullah · #4 12-12-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim mcnamara

Code:

echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g'

When you are using sed to work with "/" characters you have to use another delimiter - in this case I picked "#"

Again, echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g' ll work fine.... But What I need is something like this ..how can I store that value on to a variable
like abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g'`

vino · #5 12-12-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by sakthi.abdullah

abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g'`

Turn the backticks into $(...). See this.

Code:

[~]$ abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g'`
[~]$ echo $abc
a/b/d
[~]$ abc=$(echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\/#g')
[~]$ echo $abc
a\/b\/d
[~]$

Hmm.. I am a little surprised with the difference in behaviour of `...` and $(...)

Edit
Ah ! Here's how it goes with the backticks.

Code:

[/tmp]$ abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\\\/#g'`
[/tmp]$ echo $abc
a\/b\/d

And here's why. From man sh

Code:

       When  the  old-style  backquote  form of substitution is used, backslash
       retains its literal meaning except when followed by $,  ?,  or  \.   The
       first  backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command sub-
       stitution.  When using the $(command) form, all characters  between  the
       parentheses make up the command; none are treated specially.

/Edit

Perderabo · #6 12-12-2006

Backtick version:
abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\\\/#g'`

but I strongly prefer $(...) to `...` for many reasons.

sakthi.abdullah · #7 12-13-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perderabo

Backtick version:
abc=`echo "a/b/d" | sed 's#/#\\\\/#g'`

but I strongly prefer $(...) to `...` for many reasons.

Can you please mention those ..

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