UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Nope. I would suggest you change the input format so it doesn't require the parentheses.

Code:

elif [ "$1" == "-r" ]
then
echo "Enter the new name: "
read name
echo "Enter the new address: "
read address
echo "Enter the new phone number: "
read phonenumber
#ERROR line = 'grep $2 dirInfo'
sed -e 's/$line/$name $address $phonenumber/g' dirInfo
else
echo "not found."

Still having problems. Can I not assign grep output to a variable?

try putting the grep instruction in backticks not single quotes. or use this form:

Code:

line=$(grep $2 dirInfo)

or

line=`grep $2 dirInfo`

thanks very much for the reply

line = $(grep $2 dirInfo) #Gives the error: line: command not found
line = 'grep $2 dirInfo' #Gives the error: line: command not found

Is there a different way to replace the line (if $2 exists) that might be easier?

You can't have spaces around the equals sign. But you might as well inline this into the sed script.

Code:

sed "s/.*$2.*/$name $address $phonenumber/" dirInfo

If you want to replace an existing entry in dirInfo, you need to save the result somewhere; this will merely print it. If your sed has the -i option, that's something you could explore.

However, this loses the information about whether the match was successful or not, so you might need to refactor it so that an error message can be printed if not. Maybe your grep idea was better after all.

You might want to anchor the search string a little better; if somebody says they want to replace "a" in the phone book, this will replace all lines containing the letter a anywhere in them.

Thanks for the reply, i really do appreciate all help.

I couldnt get that to work though, as i encountered many different problems

I currently have:

Code:

#delete the line that include the name that they enter

sed '$a\'"$name         :$address               :$phonenumber" dirInfo

#sort and output file dirInfo

Basically im adding the users new input, but I still need to delete the original name.

I tried sed '/$2/d' dirInfo but that didnt work, any ideas?

Again, don't use single quotes if you want variables to be expanded; use double quotes.

This will still delete all lines which contain the argument string anywhere in them; perhaps you would be better off if you required the argument to match the entire first field, exactly.

Code:

sed "/^$2:/d"