Hi

I have the following file that i need to run a sed command on

1<tab>running
2<tab>running
3<tab>running
4<tab>running

I want to be able to replace a line i.e the second one with '2<tab>failed'. As the first number is unique that can be used to search for the relevant line (using ^2 i guess).

So i want the output to be

1<tab>running
2<tab>failed
3<tab>running
4<tab>running

Thanks,

Try

sed -e 's/^2\trunning/2\tfailed/' < testfile

Maybe...

sed '/^2<tab>/s/running/failed/' testfile

Or with awk...

awk '$1==2 {gsub("running","failed")};1' testfile

Thanks.

sed '/^2/s/running/failed/' testfile works great.

I also have the scenario where I have the following

1<tab>sleeping<tab>100

and I want to replace the 'sleeping 100' part with 'running'.

How do I match a word and the remainder of the line?

Message for Ygor....
I would have used the longhand version
awk '$1==2 {gsub("running","failed")} {print $0}' testfile

- I've never seen the ";1" shorthand before - is it just another way of saying {print $0} ??

Cheers
ZB

zazzybob,

Yes, you're right. From man awk... "1" is a shorthand for "1!=0" which always evaluates to "true".