UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hi All,

I am new to Unix and have a simple question. I would like to do three sed replacements in a large text file. The command I am using is as follows....

Code:

sed –n –e ‘s/:A/:X/’ –e ‘s/:B/:Y/’ –e ‘s/:C/:Z/’ myfile.txt > myfile_SED.txt

The : need to be the search to identify specific :A, :B, :C in the files from A, B, C and replace with :X, :Y, :Z.
When I run the command it creates the myfile_SED.txt but it is 0 bytes when done. I tried to edit the file without output using this command....

Code:

sed –n –e ‘s/:A/:X/’ –e ‘s/:B/:Y/’ –e ‘s/:C/:Z/’ myfile.txt

But when I run the command, and check the file after compete, I don't see any changes. Can someone help me figure out why sed is not making the replacements?
Thanks,
jos.

You don't need those options:-

Code:

sed 's#:A#:X#;s#:B#:Y#;s#:C#:Z#' myfile.txt

hi landrjos,

do you know what the -n option stands for ?

@OP: The -n option means that you do not print anything unless specified with the p command. You should leave it out.

The quotes and the minus signs in your example are not the right characters:
‘ and ’ should be ' ; – should be -