Since it’s damn near impossible to find online the simplest way to scan a Unix directory of files, search for one text pattern, and replace with another, I am now archiving the simplest method I could find (which I’ve tested and have proven that it works beautifully). Simply cd to the directory where your files live, modify (or leave) the *.php to match the file type you are modifying, then run the following at the command line:
-
for fl in *.php; do
mv $fl $fl.old
sed ‘s/FINDSTRING/REPLACESTRING/g’ $fl.old > $fl
#rm -f $fl.old
done
Uncomment rm -f $fl.old if you don’t want to bother keeping a copy of the old files. Simple, eh? It’s all about sed, baby.
19 responses so far ↓
1 Indrid Cold // Apr 25, 2003 at 10:23 am
Awesome little script; thanks for sharing.
2 Matt Toledo // Jun 10, 2003 at 3:26 pm
Thanks a lot for this. I’ve been looking for a way to do this for quite a while. I’m suprised its not a function of sed or a built in linux command.
Now if only you can make this recursive through subdirectories!
3 Tobias // Jul 17, 2003 at 8:07 am
The following script includes subdirectories and capsulates the functionality in a file.
first arg: File Pattern; e.g ‘*.php’
second arg: pattern to search for; e.g. “find string”
third arg: replace string; e.g. “replace string”
The script still fails on filenames, that contain spaces. Any ideas what’s wrong?
=============================================
Paste this into a file ‘renall’ and make it executable (chmod u+x renall):
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# -lt 3 ] ; then
echo -e “Wrong number of parameters.”
echo -e “Usage:”
echo -e ” renall ‘filepat’ findstring replacestring\n”
exit 1
fi
#echo $1 $2 $3
for i in `find . -name “$1” -exec grep -l “$2” {} \;`
do
mv “$i” “$i.sedsave”
sed “s/$2/$3/g” “$i.sedsave” > “$i”
echo $i
#rm “$i.sedsave”
done
4 sean // Jul 18, 2003 at 9:57 am
Sorry, I’m new to Linux.
I just can’t seem to get it to work. I copy it to the directory, chmod it, and.. well, I guess my question is if I’m running it properly. Should there be any output?
5 sean // Jul 18, 2003 at 10:11 am
Ah, nevermind. I got it to work. Thanks.
6 Sleeper // Jul 29, 2003 at 2:46 pm
Thank you. I had previously found a solution that uses a similar syntax in Perl (in the Linux Cookbook), but it fails to escape characters properly. Your script works perfectly.
7 Harish Puranik // Sep 3, 2003 at 9:46 am
Thanks for sharing this … was very useful.
8 Gergo // Oct 26, 2003 at 1:58 am
There is a nice little utility called rpl for this task. http://software.freshmeat.net/projects/rpl/
9 Michael Sewell // Nov 11, 2003 at 10:52 am
That rpl utility was very useful…it did exactly what I needed. Thanks!
10 Mario // Nov 24, 2003 at 8:24 pm
Useful little script, thanks 🙂
11 Aleda Freeman // Dec 3, 2003 at 7:31 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Just what I needed.
12 Grant // Jan 16, 2004 at 4:05 pm
This is great! Thanks for the tip!
13 Nick Gushlow // Feb 11, 2004 at 10:37 am
Nice little script, thanks. 🙂
14 Mandy // Apr 21, 2004 at 9:48 am
Wonderful! Thanks!
15 Sway // Apr 21, 2004 at 5:35 pm
Just what I was looking for! THX!
16 Megan // May 4, 2004 at 5:59 pm
Wow! How easy. Thanks!!
17 scott // May 22, 2004 at 8:44 pm
The following works for me. The command on the web page you reference has an error (see my comment there). It should be:
find ./ -type f -exec sed ‘s/string1/string2/’ {} \;
This command visits every file in . and it’s subdirectories and makes the substitution.
18 scott // May 22, 2004 at 9:57 pm
oops, forgot the -i option to make sed edit the file in-place:
find ./ -type f -exec sed -i ‘s/string1/string2/’ {} \;
19 KristyX // Nov 4, 2004 at 2:05 am
Thanks a bunch! This is exactly what I needed 🙂 Will save me tons of repetitive, mindless work heh