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Works on command line but not in script

 
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# 1  
Old 03-04-2011
Works on command line but not in script
Hey guys. Hopefully this is an easy one but having reference similar problems on the web I still can't fix it.

I am doing a recursive find and replace from a script. Of course I could just run the damn thing from the command line but it's bugging me now and want to get it working.
Code:
grep -rl $1 * | xargs sed -i 's/$1/$2/g'

The above line is the basic command line I am using. When I replace the variables with real text on the command line it works just fine.

When I run that line inside my script with two inputs and echo out the line the line is exactly as it should be, but when executed from within the script it does zilch, nada, nothing.

At the top of my script I included:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL=/bin/bash
MAIL=/var/mail/root
PATH=/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

These are exactly the same if you type env

Am I missing something?

Many thanks
Last edited by Scott; 03-04-2011 at 09:43 AM.. Reason: Code tags, please...
# 2  
Old 03-04-2011
Help us to help you :

1) Please post exactly the command line you enter as well as the output you get
2) Please post exactly the code of the script you run as well as the output you get
3) Please post exaclty what output you expect.

We may then be able to provide you a more efficient help.
# 3  
Old 03-04-2011
EXAMPLE 1: COMMAND LINE STRING

Working command line command: grep -rl POP * | xargs sed -i 's/POP/MOM/g'

This command should access all files in the current directory that have POP in them. It should then replace all instances of POP with MOM.

There is no output except that the files that have the string POP in them have bene changed so they now have MOM in them.

EXAMPLE 2: SCRIPT BASED CHANGE

Below is the command line inside a script. The script runs, takes two parameters POP and MOM so you would run it like this:

Code:
bash findandreplace.sh POP MOM

./findandreplace.sh POP MOM

The contents of the script are below

Code:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL=/bin/bash
MAIL=/var/mail/root
PATH=/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

if [ -z "$1" ] || [ -z "$2" ]
then
  echo " "
  echo " "
  echo "Usage: findandreplace.sh string1 string2"
  echo " "
  echo "Example:  findandreplace.sh  begin  end"
  echo " "
  echo "This will find all instances of begin and replace with end"
  echo "within the current directory."
  echo " "
 exit -1
fi
grep -rl $1 * | xargs sed -i 's/$1/$2/g'



When I echo the command line above inside the script the command line is perfect. But it doesn't actually make the change.
Last edited by pludi; 03-04-2011 at 10:53 AM.. Reason: code tags please
# 4  
Old 03-04-2011
In your script, change
Code:
grep -rl $1 * | xargs sed -i 's/$1/$2/g'

with
Code:
grep -rl "$1" * | xargs sed -i "s/$1/$2/g"

and try to rerun the script

If you already have replaced all POP by MOM, you can then run it to roll back the changes and replace all MOM by POP (for test purpose of course).
This User Gave Thanks to ctsgnb For This Post:
anthonyjstewart
# 5  
Old 03-04-2011
Ah!

SO I was missing something.

Problem solved.

You are my god!

Thanks a lot.
 
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