A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash) - Shell Programming and Scripting

		The UNIX and Linux Forums > Top Forums > Shell Programming and Scripting
A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash)

google unix.com

Thread: A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash)

View Single Post in the UNIX and Linux Forums - Click on the Thread or Permalink to View Entire Thread -->

#2 (permalink)

03-18-2008

era

Guest

Posts: n/a

Bits: 0 [Banking]

man grep

Code:

read input
fgrep -vx "$input" file

It removes the line completely, and doesn't even leave the newline. If you require the newline to be preserved, it's a bit harder.

It's not too tough to generate a proper regular expression, per se, but it tends to be a bit ugly.

Code:

read input
echo "$input" | sed -e 's/[][\\.*^$]/\\&/g; s/.*/s%^&\$%%/' | sed -f - file

This is untested, and intended merely as a proof of concept. I probably forgot one or two special characters which need to be backslash-escaped. (Hint: remove the final part of the pipeline to see the generated script.)