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Full Discussion: Global search and replace across multiple files
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Global search and replace across multiple files Post 302468536 by Scott on Wednesday 3rd of November 2010 05:46:05 AM
Old 11-03-2010
There are a number of problems with sanjaypraj's script:

Code:
#/bin/ksh             # Missing ! after #
for k in `find ./ -type f| xargs grep oldstring  # No closing backquote, and expect an Arg list too long error
do
   filename=`echo $k | cut -d ":" -f1`  # not sure why this is needed
   sed 's/oldstring/newstring/g' $filename >${filename}.bk
   mv ${filename}.bk ${filename}  # This is dangerous
done

Code:
find . -type -f | while read FILE; do
  sed "s/oldstring/newstring/g" $FILE > $FILE.new
  cp -f $FILE.new $FILE && rm $FILE.new
done

Code:
# This is dangerous.  Suppose your "sed" updates an important system file...
$ ls -l rc.tcpip
-rwxrwxr--    1 root     system         6610 Oct 23 09:33 rc.tcpip
 
$ sed "s/old/new/g" rc.tcpip > rc.tcpip.new
 
$ ls -l rc.tcpip.new
-rw-r--r--    1 root     system         6610 Nov 3 10:49 rc.tcpip.new
 
$ mv rc.tcpip.new rc.tcpip
 
$ ls -l rc.tcpip
-rw-r--r--    1 root     system         6610 Nov 3 10:49 rc.tcpip

And when you reboot three months later....
Last edited by Scott; 11-03-2010 at 07:06 AM.. Reason: cut & paste error; typo
 

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LEARN ABOUT FREEBSD

soeliminate

SOELIMINATE(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 					    SOELIMINATE(1)

NAME

     soeliminate -- interpret .so directive in manpages

SYNOPSIS

     soeliminate [-Crtv] [-I dir] [files ...]

DESCRIPTION

     soeliminate reads files lines by lines.

     If a line starts by: ``.so anotherfile'' it replace the line by processing ``anotherfile''.  Otherwise the line is printed to stdout.

     -C      Compatibility with GNU groff's soelim(1) (does nothing).

     -r      Compatibility with GNU groff's soelim(1) (does nothing).

     -t      Compatibility with GNU groff's soelim(1) (does nothing).

     -v      Compatibility with GNU groff's soelim(1) (does nothing).

     -I dir  This option specify directories where soeliminate searches for files (both those on the command line and those named in ``.so''
	     directive.)  This options may be specified multiple times. The directories will be searched in the order specified.

     The files are always searched first in the current directory.

     A file specified with an absolute path will be opened directly without performing a search.

SEE ALSO

     mandoc(1), soelim(1)

BSD
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