Andreas: Created page with "== Best solution for me so far == use the following phase, do not put it into a script, just replace the 4 variables. When I put it into a script I sometimes get weird behavi..."

2016-02-16T11:43:04Z

Created page with "== Best solution for me so far == use the following phase, do not put it into a script, just replace the 4 variables. When I put it into a script I sometimes get weird behavi..."

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== Best solution for me so far ==
use the following phase, do not put it into a script, just replace the 4 variables.
When I put it into a script I sometimes get weird behaviour, depending on the search pattern.
sed -i s/$SEARCH/$REPLACE/g `grep -irl $SEARCH * --include=$PATTERN`

== simple change of multiple files, even in multiple directories ==
If you want to use sed on many files you always should first try to do it the easy way:
sed -i 's/lookingFor/replacingWith/g' */*.c # many files in many directories

But if you have to have more control there are two ways I currently know of:
== let find do the searching ==
find . -type f -exec sed -i 's/lookingFor/replacingWith/g' {} +
find will iterate all directories below the given "." and call the given command for each file. {} will be replaced with the filenames.
The + tells find to give many files at the same time to the given command.
I do not really understand the use of + here, the manpage does not use it in its examples. But it works. So currently I'd keep it. If I would not use the second solution.
Beware of problems with {} when the filenames may contain spaces.
Perhaps you'll have to do put something like \' arround them, not sure if there even is a problem. Just a hint.

== let grep find the files and then use sed on these files ==
sed -i 's/lookingFor/replacingWith/g' `grep -ril 'lookingFor' * --include=*.cpp`
You will have to use ticks around the grep command !
The disadvantage of this is, that you'll have to give the 'lookingFor' twice.
But you could use a script too... :-)

<pre>
#!/bin/bash
# replace-in-files
if [ "$1" = "--help" ] || [ $# -ne 4 ]; then
echo replace-in-files v 0.1, it@andreas-duffner.de
echo this file will replace text in given files
echo Syntax: $0 \<dir\> \<lookingFor\> \<replaceWith\> \<filePattern\>
echo Example: $0 . Bug Feature '*.cpp'
exit 1
fi

DIR=$1
SEARCH=$2
REPLACE=$3
PATTERN=$4

sed -i s/$SEARCH/$REPLACE/g `grep -irl $SEARCH * --include=$PATTERN`
</pre>

Using sed recursive on a file system - Revision history

Andreas: Created page with "== Best solution for me so far == use the following phase, do not put it into a script, just replace the 4 variables. When I put it into a script I sometimes get weird behavi..."