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Need help to use regex to do search and replace. Don't know how to and can't figure out how :(

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Top Forums UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers Need help to use regex to do search and replace. Don't know how to and can't figure out how :(
# 1  
Old 12-05-2018
Need help to use regex to do search and replace. Don't know how to and can't figure out how :(
Hi,

Below is an excerpt from a 20000+ lines and I want to do a search and replace of a specific string but I don't know how and I can't figure out how to. Can't find an example from Google or anywhere to do what I am wanting to do.

Code:
A                    2018-11-21 08:42:17 TEST_TEST 2018-11-21 00:50:45 Accessed:   2,146,893,824 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/temp/abcp_temp_10.dbf
A                    2018-11-21 08:41:52 TEST_TEST 2018-11-21 00:50:45 Accessed:   2,146,697,216 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/temp/abcp_temp_9.dbf
A                    2018-11-21 03:29:04 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:33 Accessed:          22,528 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_ABCD_TEST_COMM_P201406_tts_exp.dta
A                    2018-11-21 03:28:57 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:28 Accessed:     563,101,696 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_abcd_test_comm_201406_data_01.dbf

I need to search for all lines that contain the string /db/LTS/abcp_ but only those that ends in .dbf. So from the excerpts above, it should find the line below:

Code:
A                    2018-11-21 03:28:57 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:28 Accessed:     563,101,696 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_abcd_test_comm_201406_data_01.dbf

And I want to replace them so it so that it will be

Code:
A                    2018-11-21 03:28:57 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:28 Accessed:     563,101,696 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abct_abcd_test_comm_201406_data_01.dbf

So, basically I need to change /db/LTS/abcp_ to /db/LTS/abct_. It is the one in BOLD that I am wanting to search and replace.
The grep regex below seems to do what I wanted. But I don't know how to do like a sed search and replace thing Smilie

Code:
$: grep "/db/LTS/abcp_.*dbf$" xx.txt
A                    2018-11-21 03:28:57 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:28 Accessed:     563,101,696 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_abcd_test_comm_201406_data_01.dbf

Any help will be much appreciated.

P.S.:
- Is there any way to colorize or highlight certain text? I was hoping to be able to do that in this post but can't find the option to do so. I thought that option was available on the older forum ??? Smilie
# 2  
Old 12-05-2018
Try
Code:
sed -r '\#(/db/LTS/abc)p(_.*dbf)$#s//\1t\2/' file


And, yes, the text colour selector (available in the "quick reply editor") seems to be missing in the "advanced editor". But with the bold and underline you did quite well.
This User Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
newbie_01
# 3  
Old 12-05-2018
Hi RudiC

Doesn't work on Solaris but works perfectly on Linux. Thanks a lot. Not even our supposedly 'smartest' SA can figure out what to do. You're a genius.

Sorry forgot to say am trying to do this on Solaris. I have to do the sed on Linux and copy the file back to Solaris. Any idea how to go on the Solaris 8/10?

Can't quite work out or understand 100% what your code does though? Do you mind providing answers to my questions?

Code:
sed -r '\#(/db/LTS/abc)p(_.*dbf)$#s//\1t\2/' file

01 - Why are you escaping the # in the beginning?
02 - The p before the (_ is because I want to match a single p? Is that correct?
03 - The #s//\1t\2/ is the one that I don't understand for the most part. Is it doing another search?

Thanks again for looking into this.
# 4  
Old 12-05-2018
The following seems to do what you want just using standard sed features:
Code:
sed 's#\(/db/LTS/abc\)p\(_.*\.dbf\)#\1t\2#' file > file.$$ &&
    cp file.$$ file &&
    rm file.$$

The \1 and \2 in the replacement string in the substitute command are back references that are replaced by the strings matched by the BREs between the escaped sets of parentheses, respectively.

Using unescaped parentheses (as in RudiC's suggestion) is a GNU extension that is not allowed in the standards. The sed -r option is not included in the standards, but is allowed as an extension.

When I was using Solaris systems, I would have done this using /usr/xpg4/bin/sed, but I don't think there is anything in the above commands that won't work with /bin/sed or /usr/bin/sed.
These 3 Users Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
jim mcnamara newbie_01 RudiC
# 5  
Old 12-05-2018
Quote:
Originally Posted by newbie_01
Hi RudiC

Doesn't work on Solaris but works perfectly on Linux.
Where and how does it fail? Please give as detailed and complete an error message as possible.

Quote:
01 - Why are you escaping the # in the beginning?
man sed:
Quote:
Addresses.
.
.
\cregexpc
Match lines matching the regular expression regexp. The c may be any character.
I use the # here because the usual / is part of the pattern.


Quote:
02 - The p before the (_ is because I want to match a single p? Is that correct?
Yes.


Quote:
03 - The #s//\1t\2/ is the one that I don't understand for the most part. Is it doing another search?
The # is the final address delimiter. An empty regex (s//) repeats the last one encountered, here: the address regex.
# 6  
Old 12-05-2018
Hi RudiC

Thanks for the explanation. I'll have a read.

Error is as below:

Here's the test file:

Code:
$: cat xx.txt
A                    2018-11-21 08:42:17 TEST_TEST 2018-11-21 00:50:45 Accessed:   2,146,893,824 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/temp/abcp_temp_10.dbf
A                    2018-11-21 08:41:52 TEST_TEST 2018-11-21 00:50:45 Accessed:   2,146,697,216 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/temp/abcp_temp_9.dbf
A                    2018-11-21 03:29:04 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:33 Accessed:          22,528 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_ABCD_TEST_COMM_P201406_tts_exp.dta
A                    2018-11-21 03:28:57 TEST_TEST 2017-06-17 22:01:28 Accessed:     563,101,696 /NFS_mnt/mnlNFS111/vol_abcp_db/abcp/.snapshot/mnl1ns123_vol_abcp_db_ss.0/db/LTS/abcp_abcd_test_comm_201406_data_01.dbf

Running with /bin/sed or /usr/xpg4/bin/sed:

Code:
$: sed -r '\#(/db/LTS/abc)p(_.*dbf)$#s//\1t\2/' xx.txt
sed: illegal option -- r

$: /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -r '\#(/db/LTS/abc)p(_.*dbf)$#s//\1t\2/' xx.txt
/usr/xpg4/bin/sed: illegal option -- r
Usage:  sed [-n] script [file...]
        sed [-n] [-e script]...[-f script_file]...[file...]

OS version:

Code:
$: uname -a
SunOS [hostname] 5.11 11.3 sun4v sparc sun4v

# 7  
Old 12-05-2018
Hi newbie_01,
Did you try what I suggested in post #4 in this thread (perhaps replacing file everywhere it appears with xx.txt)?
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