topic Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt? in Operating System - HP-UX

vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Jessica Chou — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 05:08:36 GMT

I need to substitude a certain string of files under a specific directory. for instance, in *.c, a string
#include
need to be changed to
#include

Can I kind of combine "find", "grep" and "vi"=>
:1,$s/string.h/String.h/g
to accomplish it?

Please help. Thank you.

Jessica

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Madhu Sudhan_1 — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 06:29:53 GMT

Jessica :
Please find attached the script which does the same thing what you wanted. I think this is the cleaner way than using vi to do the job.

Hope this helps.

PS: Use the Script as
# t.sh *.c

Enjoy !

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

curt larson — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 06:48:06 GMT

you can do it this way:

re=string.h
sub_re=String.h

find your_dir -name "*.h" |
while read filename
do
ex -sc "1,$ s/$re/$sub_re/g | wq" $filename
done

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Madhu Sudhan_1 — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 17:23:42 GMT

Jessica:
A small note to you. Use the script as

# t.sh *.c

You have to use "" to negate the what shell has about it.

......Madhu

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Madhu Sudhan_1 — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 18:04:19 GMT

Iam trying to put a backward slash and it is not getting printed in the post.

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Sid Shapiro — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 18:49:36 GMT

Download a command "rpl" from hpux porting center. It is very handy command.

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Kevin Ernst — Thu, 02 Nov 2000 18:36:05 GMT

Curt's suggestion of using 'ex' is probably the fastest way of doing it with tools you already have on your system, and *without* creating any intermediate files. Just be very sure the syntax of your substitution ("1,$s/this/that") command is correct before hitting the 'Enter' key, as you would have no way of going back if you make a mistake.

Madhu's script uses 'sed,' which cannot modify the files directly, but uses an intermediate file to store the results before overwriting the original file. As an added safety net, you could modify his script so that the intermediate file is preserved (so you can verify the changes), and the original file is left untouched.

Re: vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

Madhu Sudhan_1 — Thu, 02 Nov 2000 19:56:14 GMT

Thanks Kevin, Your point noted.

......Madhu