shell script to find and replace string in multiple files


 
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# 1  
Old 11-05-2007
shell script to find and replace string in multiple files

I used the following script


cd pathname
for y in `ls *`;
do sed "s/ABCD/DCBA/g" $y > temp; mv temp $y;
done



and it worked fine for finding and replacing strings with names etc. in all files of the given path.

I'm trying to replace a string which consists of path (location of file)

say instead of ABCD i have to replace c:/mydocuments/pictures to
d:/mypics/personal , as metacharacters wont be searched in unix this script is failing to replace the string which has a path in it.

now my script is


cd pathname
for y in `ls *`;
do sed "s/'c:/mydocuments/pictures'/'d:/mypics/personal'/g" $y > temp; mv temp $y;
done





i tired giving the path in single quotes and double quotes, but i see error

sed: command garbled: s/'c:/mydocuments/pictures'/'d:/mypics/personal'/g


And all the contents of the files in the path are erased.


Also tried the following using sed -


sed -e "s!AAA!BBB!g"
sed =e "s+AAA+BBB+g"

as the string has / in the file location path

Is there any other way to work this out.

Thanks
# 2  
Old 11-05-2007
Try
Code:
cd pathname
for y in `ls *`;
do 
   sed 's_c:/mydocuments/pictures_d:/mypics/personal_' $y > temp; mv temp $y;
done

Jean-Pierre.

Last edited by aigles; 11-05-2007 at 03:42 PM.. Reason: sed command correction
# 3  
Old 11-05-2007
tired

below script sent the error

sed: command garbled:
# 4  
Old 11-05-2007
There was an erroneous / in the sed command.
Previous post modified.

Jean-Pierre.
# 5  
Old 11-05-2007
Single quotes become ordinary characters when inside double-quotes. So you can do this:

echo "that's OK"

and this is not an error or open-quote. So putting single-quotes inside a quoted sed-expression is OK, but is does not quote the text between them.

The code above by Jean-Pierre looks OK to me.
# 6  
Old 11-06-2007
Now it works, one of the _ is missing in my sed command .

Thanks 2 all who responded
# 7  
Old 11-06-2007
same script with different attempt

I tried the following script

cd pathname
for y in `ls *`;
do
sed 's_c:\mydocuments\pictures_d:/mypics/personal_' $y > temp; mv temp $y;
done

This script is working for all other paths mentioned with forward slash (i.e c:/mydocuments/pictures ).

As it has a back slash i need to save it with one more \ i.e \\ but using this is not working, instead getting Error (sed garbled).

Any solutions ?
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