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Full Discussion: A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash)
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash) Post 302176035 by srikanths on Monday 17th of March 2008 07:49:44 AM
Old 03-17-2008
A simple find and replace without using any regex (bash)
Hi,

I need to do an exact find and replace (I don't want to use regular expressions because the input comes from user). I want to find a line that matches the user's input text and replace it with an empty string.

For example, let's say the user enters I love "Unix" and the contents of the file where I want to do find and replace is this:

Code:
I like "Unix" more than DOS
I love "Unix"
I said I love "Unix"
I love "Unix" a lot

Now I want to replace the line I love "Unix" with empty string. And I want to leave the remaining lines like I said I love "Unix" and I love "Unix" a lot as is. The double-quotes are intentional.

Which Unix utility can do this? An example would be great! I searched and found that sed is something close what I am looking for, but it takes a regular expression. Because the input string is coming from the user, it's tough for me to generate a regular expression for that. Any other ways?

Thanks!
 

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

file::homedir::unix

File::HomeDir::Unix(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation				  File::HomeDir::Unix(3pm)

NAME

       File::HomeDir::Unix - Find your home and other directories on legacy Unix

SYNOPSIS

	 use File::HomeDir;

	 # Find directories for the current user
	 $home	  = File::HomeDir->my_home;	   # /home/mylogin
	 $desktop = File::HomeDir->my_desktop;	   # All of these will...
	 $docs	  = File::HomeDir->my_documents;   # ...default to home...
	 $music   = File::HomeDir->my_music;	   # ...directory
	 $pics	  = File::HomeDir->my_pictures;    #
	 $videos  = File::HomeDir->my_videos;	   #
	 $data	  = File::HomeDir->my_data;	   #

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides implementations for determining common user directories.  In normal usage this module will always be used via
       File::HomeDir.

SUPPORT

       See the support section the main File::HomeDir module.

AUTHORS

       Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>

       Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>

SEE ALSO

       File::HomeDir, File::HomeDir::Win32 (legacy)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2005 - 2011 Adam Kennedy.

       Some parts copyright 2000 Sean M. Burke.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

perl v5.14.2							    2012-01-25						  File::HomeDir::Unix(3pm)
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