Shell Programming and Scripting

hi below is a regex that i have framed to strip some bad words from my text.

(\bDAMN\s?|FART|FUCK(ED|ER|ING|ME|S)\b)|(\b(HELL|HORNY|J(AC|ER)K-OFF|JI(SM|Z(M)?))\b)|(\b(MOTHA|MOTHER)?FUCK(ER(S)?|IN(G)?)?\b)|(\b(SHIT(TY|S)?|SLUT(S)?|SPUNK|TWAT)\ b)|(ASS(ES)?\s?HOLE(S)?\s?)|(\bBITCH(ES|IN|ING)?+\s?HOLE(S))|(\bBLOW\s?(JOB|JOBS))|(\bCOCK\s?(S|SUCK |SUCKER|SUCKING|SUCKS)\b)|(\bSUCK(S)\b)|(^NAME$|^SELF$|^NONE$|^NA$|^PERSONAL$|^HOME$|^STUDENT$|^RESI DENCE$|^INDIVIDUAL$|^N/A$|^UNKNOWN$)|(\bNAME\b)|(\bSELF\b)|(\bNONE\b)|(\bNA\b)|(\bN/A\b)|(\bPERSONAL\b)|(\bHOME\b)|(\bSTUDENT\b)|(\bRESIDENCE\b)|(\bINDIVIDUAL\b)|(\b(PHONESEX|PISSOFF|P RICK(S)?|PUSS(IES|Y)(S)?)\b)|(\b(CUM(S)?|CUNT(S)?)\b)


i need to implement this in a perl script. if i use the regex in perl script as below i get an illegal variable error.

perl -pe "s\bDAMN\s?|FART|FUCK(ED|ER|ING|ME|S)\b)|(\b(HELL|HORNY|J(AC|ER)K-OFF|JI(SM|Z(M)?))\b)|(\b(MOTHA|MOTHER)?FUCK(ER(S)?|IN(G)?)?\b)|(\b(SHIT(TY|S)?|SLUT(S)?|SPUNK|TWAT)\ b)|(ASS(ES)?\s?HOLE(S)?\s?)|(\bBITCH(ES|IN|ING)?+\s?HOLE(S))|(\bBLOW\s?(JOB|JOBS))|(\bCOCK\s?(S|SUCK |SUCKER|SUCKING|SUCKS)\b)|(\bSUCK(S)\b)|(^NAME$|^SELF$|^NONE$|^NA$|^PERSONAL$|^HOME$|^STUDENT$|^RESI DENCE$|^INDIVIDUAL$|^N/A$|^UNKNOWN$)|(\bNAME\b)|(\bSELF\b)|(\bNONE\b)|(\bNA\b)|(\bN/A\b)|(\bPERSONAL\b)|(\bHOME\b)|(\bSTUDENT\b)|(\bRESIDENCE\b)|(\bINDIVIDUAL\b)|(\b(PHONESEX|PISSOFF|P RICK(S)?|PUSS(IES|Y)(S)?)\b)|(\b(CUM(S)?|CUNT(S)?)\b):-:g" input.txt >> output.txt

is this because of the words that i use between ^ and $ and is it advisable to use possesive qualifier + in the script.

That is quite a load to look at, I suggest taking it one section at a time add in a new section when the old passes.

For instance start with:

(\bDAMN\s?|FART|FUCK(ED|ER|ING|ME|S)\b)

If that passes add on:

(\bDAMN\s?|FART|FUCK(ED|ER|ING|ME|S)\b)|(\b(HELL|HORNY|J(AC|ER)K-OFF|JI(SM|Z(M)?))\b)

etc...

I tried your regexp on a simple string and hte only problem was here:

(\bBITCH(ES|IN|ING)?+

You can't have ?+ together like that (nested quantifiers). Remove the + and retry your code. Not sure how long your post will be allowed to remain with all those vulgar words in it though.

Personally I might go with a more maintainable approach than that long winded regexp to filter out words from a file but if its a one shot deal it should be OK.