vi : can i execute a substitution at shell prompt?

[Jessica Chou]

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

[Madhu Sudhan_1 · Accepted solution]

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 !

[curt larson]

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

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

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

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

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

[Sid Shapiro]

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

[Kevin Ernst]

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.

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

Thanks Kevin, Your point noted.

......Madhu