Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi
I am trying to edit a text file on a remote server using sed from within a cygwin shell on a windows system.

Code:

$ sed -i  "s/aaa/bbb/g"  \\remoteHost\c$\log.info 
sed: can't read \remoteHostc$log.info: No such file or directory

What am I missing ?
Thanks.

And if you type ls \\remoteHost\c$\log.info (or dir \\remote...) what do you see?

$ls \\remoteHost\c$\log.info
\remoteHostc$log.info

vnn@myHost /cygdrive/c
$dir \\remoteHost\c$\log.info
\remoteHostc$log.info
vnn@myHost /cygdrive/c

---------- Post updated at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:49 PM ----------

From my windows local system, from a command prompt, I am able to see this file on the remote server using 'dir' command.
Also
an echo command seems to work from within the cygwin shell on my local windows system
echo "xxx" >> \\remoteHost\c$\log.info

It looks like the problem is specific to sed...

Does:

Code:

sed  "s/aaa/bbb/g" \\remote.....

(without -i) work?

Is it that you haven't set up write permissions to the remote directory / file?

edit: your updated post crossed mine! If the echo works, you have write permission

no the sed command without -i does not work either.
sed: can't read \remoteHostc$log.info: No such file or directory

---------- Post updated at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:30 PM ----------

Tried sed "s/aaa/bbb/g" \\remoteHost\c$\log.info > \\remoteHost\c$\temp\log.txt
Substitution was successful but \\remote...\temp\log.txt contained all the lines in log.info minus the newlines. All of the content in log.txt was in a single line...

---------- Post updated 01-13-11 at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous update was 01-12-11 at 10:07 PM ----------

After running sed "s/aaa/bbb/g" \\remoteHost\c$\log.info > \\remoteHost\c$\temp\log.txt
I noticed that notepad displayed log.txt file contents in one line. It appears that wehn the file is modified from the cygwin shell, it adds both the carriage return and newline between the lines instead of just the newlines.

How can I edit a file on the remote windows server in place and have just newlines inserted between the lines ?
Thanks.

---------- Post updated at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous update was at 11:38 AM ----------

I piped the output of "s/aaa/bbb/g" \\remoteHost\c$\log.info to sed 's/$`"/\\r/" and that took care of converting Unix style newlines to dos format.
However now I save the output in a temporary file on the windows server and then use xcopy to copy it ot the original file.

I would like to avoid this and edit the file in place. Any suggestions ?

Thanks.

Don't use Notepad!

Download something like WinVi.

In the short-term use the Windows (DOS) edit program, if it's available to you, to open the file, then just save it and quit. Then Notepad should have its newlines.

Thank you - I am trying to get all these steps automated. For now, the pipe works. But I would really like to edit the file in place...

---------- Post updated at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:54 AM ----------

I am seeing a different error now, when I edit the text file on the remote windows server 'in place' using sed (from cygwin shell):

sed: cannot rename ./sedploEpx: Invalid cross-device link

Any ideas ?
Thanks.