topic Re: Remove a comment # from a file in Operating System - HP-UX

Remove a comment # from a file

Andrew_80 — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:08:15 GMT

Any one know How to remove a "#" from a file without using vi (using script).
I think I am half way the problem as I believe I should use ch_rc command, but I am not sure of the syntax.

Thanks

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Pete Randall — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:12:30 GMT

Well, there's always sed:

sed 's|#AnyOtherTextNecessaryToIdentifyTheLine||g'`

Pete

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Sergejs Svitnevs — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:17:49 GMT

sed 's/#//g' file > new_file

Regards,
Sergejs

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Andrew_80 — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:34:50 GMT

This is OK, But I need to edit a file like
"/etc/rc.config.d/savecrash" and remove the comments from three lines and the sed allow you to only create it on anew file. So, I am trying to save multiple steps.

Thanks

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Bruno Ganino — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:46:15 GMT

...more
sed 's/#//n' infile > outfile
(n=1 to 512). Substitute for just the n'th occurrence.
Bruno

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Michael Steele_2 — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:52:38 GMT

grep -v \# file1 > file2

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Bruno Ganino — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 12:13:33 GMT

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Paddy_1 — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 15:26:27 GMT

Use this perl script to display the file and redirect it as neccesary
-----------------------------

open I, $ARGV[0] or die "cannot open $ARGV[0]: $!";

while ($line=)
{
next if $line=~ /^#/;
print $line;
}
------------------------

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Andrew_80 — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:02:12 GMT

Remember I just want to remove the '#' from some specific lines not the whole file savecrash.

# SAVECRASH=1
# SAVECRASH_DIR=/var/adm/crash
# COMPRESS=2

I know how to change the values using

#ch_rc -a -p

and on the man pages it says you can remove characters also, but I am not sure How ?
I appreciate your responses.

Thanks

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Mark Grant — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:10:21 GMT

mv savecrash savecrash.prev
cat savecrash.prev | sed s/^#//g > savecrash

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Andrew_80 — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:15:11 GMT

But that will remove it from all the lines including text !!

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

harry d brown jr — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:18:05 GMT

You need to use "vi", "emacs" or "ed". Unless you are a pattern matching expert and know how to write code in perl, your request for another "answer", other than editors, is highly unlikely, especially since you want to have an answer that magically knows which "#" lines to remove or possibly "un-comment" lines and which not to.

If you don't like "vi", then copy the progam to your desktop and use "wordpad".

live free or die
harry

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Robert-Jan Goossens — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:19:28 GMT

Why do'nt you want to use vi ??

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Steven Sim Kok Leong — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:25:59 GMT

Hi,

I tend to agree with Harry.

In addition, if you just want to get rid of consecutive lines at the beginning or at the end of the file, you can use head and/or tail. For instance, you want the 4th line onwards from the file, then:

# tail +4 myfile > myfile2

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Mark Grant — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:27:06 GMT

My last post only removes the "#" not the text. It does do it for all lines though. There is no way that you can be sure you are uncommenting the right thing unless you give the script something to match against. Now that is going to start to be annoying when uncommenting large files.

If it is something you find you are doing a lot of just make a copy of the file with the comments in and another with the comments out and just cp the one you want when you want.

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Andrew_80 — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:41:08 GMT

Thanks a lot, The reason I don't want to use vi is that I have to do the same thing across 20 machines !

I will use Mark's solution
cat savecrash.prev | sed s/^#//g > savecrash
and specify each line.

Thanks again

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Jean-Luc Oudart — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 11:26:07 GMT

If you know which line pattern you want to replace say # SAVECRASH
then you can use vi
this way
create "mycom" a command file :
:1,$s/^# SAVECRASH/SAVECRASH/
:wq

then run
vi < mycom >/dev/null

Rgds,
Jean-Luc

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Bruno Ganino — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 03:09:00 GMT

Well, try
cat savecrash | sed s/# SAVECRASH//g > savecrash.tmp
cat savecrash.tmp | sed s/# COMPRESS//g > savecrash

P.S. option g=globale or n=occorrence
HTH
Bruno

Re: Remove a comment # from a file

Bruno Ganino — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 03:12:37 GMT

Before not right, This is OK! Sorry
Well, try
cat savecrash | sed s/# SAVECRASH/SAVECRASH/g > savecrash.tmp
cat savecrash.tmp | sed s/# COMPRESS/COMPRESS/g > savecrash
P.S. option g=globale or n=occorrence
HTH
Bruno