ksh: replacing a line in many files under a dir.

[Hanry Zhou]

Hi,

I have a directory and it contains a lot of files. 90% of these files include a particular email address, "abc@abc.com". How do I write a ksh script to replace the address with some thing else, "xyz@xyz.com".

Thanks in advance.

Roger

[Heiner E. Lennackers · Accepted solution]

Hi,

short example:

#!/bin/ksh
cd /dir/
for i in *;do
cp $i $i.$$
sed -e 's/abc@abc.com/xyz@xyz.com/' $i.$$ >$i
rm $i.$$
done


this is just a quick hack, there are surely other and maybe better ways

Heiner
P.S. make a copy of your files before you test it.

[Deepak Extross]

You may have to escape the '@' to prevent it from being considered a kill character.
And if a single file can have "abc@abc.com" more than once, you may want to replace globally:

#!/bin/ksh
for i in *
do
sed "s/abc\@abc.com/xyz\@xyz.com/g" $i > $i.out
mv $i.out $i
done

[SHABU KHAN]

Hi,

You could use perl command line for this:

cd /toyourdirectory
perl -p -i -e 's/abc\@abc.com/xyz\@xyz.com/g' *

Will replace all occurrences in the file itself, no moving of files around ...

Thanks,
Shabu

[MAD_2]

I know this thread already responded the question to the satisfaction of the original creator. However, how do can you keep the same ownership and access rights of the original file?

Thanks

[MAD_2]

"Do can" What is that, right? Sorry, "How can you keep the original access rights and ownership?"

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi ADAM,

Use a -p on the cp command line - EX
cp -p file1 file2
the -p preserves perms & ownership.

Rgds,
Jeff

[MAD_2]

Sorry, actually I was referring to the example like the one Deepak uses:

#!/bin/ksh
for i in *
do
sed "s/abc\@abc.com/xyz\@xyz.com/g" $i > $i.out
mv $i.out $i
done

Wouldn't the redirection make the new files have as owner whoever runs the script?

[Darrell Allen]

Hi Adam,

Add a cp -p command just before the sed command:

#!/bin/ksh
for i in *
do
cp -p $i $i.out
sed "s/abc\@abc.com/xyz\@xyz.com/g" $i > $i.out
mv $i.out $i
done

Darrell