Can't get sed to replace string with semicolon.

[Fred Abell]

I am writing a bash script. In the file /etc/samba/smb.conf, I wish to substitute the string:

;       realm = MY_REALM

with the string:

        realm = GROUP.COM

notice the semicolon is gone.

SED sees the semicolon as special, and I don't know AWK. Anyone got a one liner:

Thanks again to all who respond to my questions regularly,

To describe my problem in fuller detail as suggested, the command:

sed -i 's/";       realm = MY_REALM"/"        realm = GROUP.COM"/g' /etc/samba/smb.conf

has issues with the semicolon.

[H.Becker · Accepted solution]

>>> has issues with the semicolon.

Maybe, but not in this example. And a semicolon may be special for a shell, but it looks like it is already escaped so that the shell should leave it alone. The quoting you use, asks sed to look for a double quoted string to be replaced by another double quoted string. I don't think you have such quoted strings in the file. So

sed -i 's/;       realm = MY_REALM/        realm = GROUP.COM/g' /etc/samba/smb.conf

should do.

[Dennis Handly]

>has issues with the semicolon.

As Steven said, you have issues with whitespace, not semicolon.