Call to sed works from command line but fails in script - linux

I've been using the following call to sed to remove lines files.
sed "/% Program:/,/mode: SPIKE/d" file.tt > file.tt.nh
I tried writing a bash script to allow me to run the script on many files at once. However sed fails.
sed "/% Program:/,/mode: SPIKE/d" file.tt > file.tt.nh
sed: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `"'
This is the script I've written that isn't working
#!/bin/bash
SEDARG='"/% Program:/,/mode: SPIKE/d"';
for F in *.tt
do
OUT=$F'.nh';
echo 'sed '$SEDARG' '$F' > '$OUT;
sed $SEDARG $F > $OUT
done
What perplexes me is if I copy the echo'd string and paste it in the command line it works fine.
Does anyone know why this script is failing but the command line call works?

Quoting is tricky. Basically, move the double quotes from where you assign to $SEDARG to where you use $SEDARG.
SEDARG='/% Program:/,/mode: SPIKE/d'
for F in *.tt
do
OUT="$F.nh"
echo "sed $SEDARG $F > $OUT"
sed "$SEDARG" "$F" > "$OUT"
done

Related

use sed to remove lines in a file except the multiple patterns defined

#!/bin/bash #general
Remove this line
echo armada #dev
Remove me also #malfunction
I have a file like above. I want only lines with #general and #dev to remain.
I tried sed -i '' '/#dev/!d' starter.sh but this will only retain lines with #dev
I tried sed -i '' '/#dev/!d;/#general/!d' starter.sh but this will remove all.
I wonder if it's possible to retain both #general and #dev using sed
TAKE NOTE: I am using Mac
You may use this sed:
sed -E '/#dev|#general/!d' file
#!/bin/bash #general
echo armada #dev
Or if you want blank lines to keep then use:
sed -E '/^[[:blank:]]*$|#(dev|general)/!d' file
The !d action says "anything which doesn't match this address should be deleted". You want to refactor the logic to say "skip this" for each matching address, then delete whatever remains.
The b "branch" action skips the remainder of the script for the current line (and proceeds to process the next line from the beginning of the script if there are lines remaining).
sed -i -e '/#dev/b' -e '/#general/b' -e 'd' starter.sh
As an aside, modifying a shell script seems misdirected. You have an entire programming language at your disposal; why not use it to decide which parts of the script to execute?
#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
'--dev' | '--general') ;;
*) echo 'Execute this if not run with --dev or general' >&2 ;;
esac
echo armada
case $1 in
'--malfunction') echo 'This too' >&2;;
esac

sed does not work as expected with variables in script [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Using different delimiters in sed commands and range addresses
(3 answers)
Closed last year.
I have a small script that does some global string replacements in various files. This should be done with sedso that only the affected lines are changed.
Preparation:
#!/bin/sh
find="Mücke Motorsport"
replace="Mücke Motorsport Racing Team"
file="/Users/meyer/Dropbox/Dev/App Framework iOS/dev/myfile.txt"
This is my problematic line in the script:
sed -i s/"$find"/"$replace"/g "$file"
Does not work (sed: 1: "/Users/meyer/Dropb ...": invalid command code o). Next try:
sed -i 's/'"$find"'/'"$replace"'/g' "$file"
Does not work (sed: 1: "/Users/meyer/Dropb ...": invalid command code o). Next try:
sed -i "s/$find/$replace/g" "$file"
Does not work (sed: 1: "/Users/meyer/Dropb ...": invalid command code o). Next try:
sed -i s/$find/$replace/g "$file"
Does not work (sed: 1: "Motorsport/Mücke": invalid command code M). Because of this error message I tried to escape my variables:
escaped_ find =$(printf '%s\n' "$find" | sed 's:[][\/.^$*]:\\&:g')
escaped_ replace =$(printf '%s\n' "$replace" | sed 's:[\/&]:\\&:g;$!s/$/\\/')
But usage of the replace variables does´t work ... I don´t know how to get this working :(
On the OSX version of sed, the -i option expects an extension argument so your command is actually parsed as the extension argument and the file path is interpreted as the command code.
Try adding the -e argument explicitly
sed -i'' -e 's/old/new/g' file

Using sed command in shell script

This is my simple shell script
sample.sh
LOCALCONFIGDIR="Install"
CONFLOC="$LOCALCONFIGDIR/server.conf"
echo "Enter Web Url:"
read weburl
echo "sed 's/^\(ServerName\)$/\1 "$weburl"/' "$CONFLOC
sed "'s/^\(ServerName\)$/\1 "$weburl"/' "$CONFLOC
When I run this code, I get the result in echo command as following.
sed 's/^\(ServerName\)$/\1 www.weburl.com/' Install/server.conf
But when executing sed command in the next line, It says the below error.
sed: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `''
I tried the command produced in echo statement from Terminal screen, It is working. But Line number 5, doesn't working from shell script
You need to use one set of quotes, not two, and since you want the $weburl variable expanded, you need to use double quotes:
sed "s/^\(ServerName\)$/\1 $weburl/" "$CONFLOC"
That'll be OK as long as $weburl doesn't contain any slashes. If it does, you need to use a different character than /, such as %, to separate the parts of the substitute command:
sed "s%^\(ServerName\)$%\1 $weburl%" "$CONFLOC"

Using a variable to replace lines in a file with backslashes

I want to add the string %%% to the beginning of some specific lines in a text file.
This is my script:
#!/bin/bash
a="c:\Temp"
sed "s/$a/%%%$a/g" <File.txt
And this is my File.txt content:
d:\Temp
c:\Temp
e:\Temp
But nothing changes when I execute it.
I think the 'sed' command is not finding the pattern, possibly due to the \ backslashes in the variable a.
I can find the c:\Temp line if I use grep with -F option (to not interpret strings):
cat File.txt | grep -F "$a"
But sed seems not to implement such '-F` option.
Not working neither:
sed 's/$a/%%%$a/g' <File.txt
sed 's/"$a"/%%%"$a"/g' <File.txt
I have found similar threads about replacing with sed, but they don't refer to variables.
How can I replace the desired lines by using a variable adding them the %%% char string?
EDIT: It would be fine that the $a variable could be entered via parameter when calling the script, so it will be assigned like:
a=$1
Try it like this:
#!/bin/sh
a='c:\\Temp' # single quotes
sed "s/$a/%%%$a/g" <File.txt # double quotes
Output:
Johns-MacBook-Pro:sed jcreasey$ sh x.sh
d:\Temp
e:\Temp
%%%c:\Temp
You need the double slash '\' to escape the '\'.
The single quotes won't expand the variables.
So you escape the slash in single quotes and pass it into the double quotes.
Of course you could also just do this:
#!/bin/sh
sed 's/\(.*Temp\)/%%%&/' <File.txt
If you want to get input from the command line you have to allow for the fact that \ is an escape character there too. So the user needs to type 'c:\\' or the interpreter will just wait for another character. Then once you get it, you will need to escape it again. (printf %q).
#!/bin/sh
b=`printf "%q" $1`
sed "s/\($b\)/%%% &/" < File.txt
The issue you are having has to do with substitution of your variable providing a regular expression looking for a literal c:Temp with the \ interpreted as an escape by the shell. There are a number of workarounds. Seeing the comments and having worked through the possibilities, the following will allow the unquoted entry of the search term:
#!/bin/bash
## validate that needed input is given on the command line
[ -n "$1" -a "$2" ] || {
printf "Error: insufficient input. Usage: %s <term> <file>\n" "${0//*\//}" >&2
exit 1
}
## validate that the filename given is readable
[ -r "$2" ] || {
printf "Error: file not readable '%s'\n" "$2" >&2
exit 1
}
a="$1" # assign a
filenm="$2" # assign filename
## test and fix the search term entered
[[ "$a" =~ '/' ]] || a="${a/:/:\\}" # test if \ removed by shell, if so replace
a="${a/\\/\\\\}" # add second \
sed -e "s/$a/%%%$a/g" "$filenm" # call sed with output to stdout
Usage:
$ bash sedwinpath.sh c:\Temp dat/winpath.txt
d:\Temp
%%%c:\Temp
e:\Temp
Note: This allows both single-quoted or unquoted entry of the dos path search term. To edit in place use sed -i. Additionally, the [[ operator and =~ operator are limited to bash.
I could have sworn the original question said replace, but to append, just as you suggest in the comments. I have updated the code with:
sed -e "s/$a/%%%$a/g" "$filenm"
Which provides the new output:
$ bash sedwinpath.sh c:\Temp dat/winpath.txt
d:\Temp
%%%c:\Temp
e:\Temp
Remember: If you want to edit the file in place use sed -i or sed -i.bak which will edit the actual file (and if -i.bak is given create a backup of the original in originalname.bak). Let me know if that is not what you intended and I'm happy to edit again.
Creating your script with a positional parameter of $1
#!/bin/bash
a="$1"
cat <file path>|sed "s/"$1"/%%%"$1"/g" > "temporary file"
Now whenever you want sed to find "c:\Temp" you need to use your script command line as follows
bash <my executing script> c:\\\\Temp
The first backslash will make bash interpret any backslashes that follows therefore what will be save in variable "a" in your executing script is "c:\\Temp". Now substituting this variable in sed will cause sed to interpret 1 backlash since the first backslash in this variable will cause sed to start interpreting the other backlash.
when you Open your temporary file you will see:
d:\Temp
%%%c:\Temp
e:\Temp

Appending a line to a file only if it does not already exist

I need to add the following line to the end of a config file:
include "/configs/projectname.conf"
to a file called lighttpd.conf
I am looking into using sed to do this, but I can't work out how.
How would I only insert it if the line doesn't already exist?
Just keep it simple :)
grep + echo should suffice:
grep -qxF 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' foo.bar || echo 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' >> foo.bar
-q be quiet
-x match the whole line
-F pattern is a plain string
https://linux.die.net/man/1/grep
Edit:
incorporated #cerin and #thijs-wouters suggestions.
This would be a clean, readable and reusable solution using grep and echo to add a line to a file only if it doesn't already exist:
LINE='include "/configs/projectname.conf"'
FILE='lighttpd.conf'
grep -qF -- "$LINE" "$FILE" || echo "$LINE" >> "$FILE"
If you need to match the whole line use grep -xqF
Add -s to ignore errors when the file does not exist, creating a new file with just that line.
Try this:
grep -q '^option' file && sed -i 's/^option.*/option=value/' file || echo 'option=value' >> file
Using sed, the simplest syntax:
sed \
-e '/^\(option=\).*/{s//\1value/;:a;n;ba;q}' \
-e '$aoption=value' filename
This would replace the parameter if it exists, else would add it to the bottom of the file.
Use the -i option if you want to edit the file in-place.
If you want to accept and keep white spaces, and in addition to remove the comment, if the line already exists, but is commented out, write:
sed -i \
-e '/^#\?\(\s*option\s*=\s*\).*/{s//\1value/;:a;n;ba;q}' \
-e '$aoption=value' filename
Please note that neither option nor value must contain a slash /, or you will have to escape it to \/.
To use bash-variables $option and $value, you could write:
sed -i \
-e '/^#\?\(\s*'${option//\//\\/}'\s*=\s*\).*/{s//\1'${value//\//\\/}'/;:a;n;ba;q}' \
-e '$a'${option//\//\\/}'='${value//\//\\/} filename
The bash expression ${option//\//\\/} quotes slashes, it replaces all / with \/.
Note: Just trapped into a problem. In bash you may quote "${option//\//\\/}", but in the sh of busybox, this does not work, so you should avoid the quotes, at least in non-bourne-shells.
All combined in a bash function:
# call option with parameters: $1=name $2=value $3=file
function option() {
name=${1//\//\\/}
value=${2//\//\\/}
sed -i \
-e '/^#\?\(\s*'"${name}"'\s*=\s*\).*/{s//\1'"${value}"'/;:a;n;ba;q}' \
-e '$a'"${name}"'='"${value}" $3
}
Explanation:
/^\(option=\).*/: Match lines that start with option= and (.*) ignore everything after the =. The \(…\) encloses the part we will reuse as \1later.
/^#?(\s*'"${option//////}"'\s*=\s*).*/: Ignore commented out code with # at the begin of line. \? means «optional». The comment will be removed, because it is outside of the copied part in \(…\). \s* means «any number of white spaces» (space, tabulator). White spaces are copied, since they are within \(…\), so you do not lose formatting.
/^\(option=\).*/{…}: If matches a line /…/, then execute the next command. Command to execute is not a single command, but a block {…}.
s//…/: Search and replace. Since the search term is empty //, it applies to the last match, which was /^\(option=\).*/.
s//\1value/: Replace the last match with everything in (…), referenced by \1and the textvalue`
:a;n;ba;q: Set label a, then read next line n, then branch b (or goto) back to label a, that means: read all lines up to the end of file, so after the first match, just fetch all following lines without further processing. Then q quit and therefore ignore everything else.
$aoption=value: At the end of file $, append a the text option=value
More information on sed and a command overview is on my blog:
https://marc.wäckerlin.ch/computer/stream-editor-sed-overview-and-reference
If writing to a protected file, #drAlberT and #rubo77 's answers might not work for you since one can't sudo >>. A similarly simple solution, then, would be to use tee --append (or, on MacOS, tee -a):
LINE='include "/configs/projectname.conf"'
FILE=lighttpd.conf
grep -qF "$LINE" "$FILE" || echo "$LINE" | sudo tee --append "$FILE"
Here's a sed version:
sed -e '\|include "/configs/projectname.conf"|h; ${x;s/incl//;{g;t};a\' -e 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' -e '}' file
If your string is in a variable:
string='include "/configs/projectname.conf"'
sed -e "\|$string|h; \${x;s|$string||;{g;t};a\\" -e "$string" -e "}" file
If, one day, someone else have to deal with this code as "legacy code", then that person will be grateful if you write a less exoteric code, such as
grep -q -F 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' lighttpd.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' >> lighttpd.conf
fi
another sed solution is to always append it on the last line and delete a pre existing one.
sed -e '$a\' -e '<your-entry>' -e "/<your-entry-properly-escaped>/d"
"properly-escaped" means to put a regex that matches your entry, i.e. to escape all regex controls from your actual entry, i.e. to put a backslash in front of ^$/*?+().
this might fail on the last line of your file or if there's no dangling newline, I'm not sure, but that could be dealt with by some nifty branching...
Here is a one-liner sed which does the job inline. Note that it preserves the location of the variable and its indentation in the file when it exists. This is often important for the context, like when there are comments around or when the variable is in an indented block. Any solution based on "delete-then-append" paradigm fails badly at this.
sed -i '/^[ \t]*option=/{h;s/=.*/=value/};${x;/^$/{s//option=value/;H};x}' test.conf
With a generic pair of variable/value you can write it this way:
var=c
val='12 34' # it handles spaces nicely btw
sed -i '/^[ \t]*'"$var"'=/{h;s/=.*/='"$val"'/};${x;/^$/{s//c='"$val"'/;H};x}' test.conf
Finally, if you want also to keep inline comments, you can do it with a catch group. E.g. if test.conf contains the following:
a=123
# Here is "c":
c=999 # with its own comment and indent
b=234
d=567
Then running this
var='c'
val='"yay"'
sed -i '/^[ \t]*'"$var"'=/{h;s/=[^#]*\(.*\)/='"$val"'\1/;s/'"$val"'#/'"$val"' #/};${x;/^$/{s//'"$var"'='"$val"'/;H};x}' test.conf
Produces that:
a=123
# Here is "c":
c="yay" # with its own comment and indent
b=234
d=567
As an awk-only one-liner:
awk -v s=option=value '/^option=/{$0=s;f=1} {a[++n]=$0} END{if(!f)a[++n]=s;for(i=1;i<=n;i++)print a[i]>ARGV[1]}' file
ARGV[1] is your input file. It is opened and written to in the for loop of theEND block. Opening file for output in the END block replaces the need for utilities like sponge or writing to a temporary file and then mving the temporary file to file.
The two assignments to array a[] accumulate all output lines into a. if(!f)a[++n]=s appends the new option=value if the main awk loop couldn't find option in file.
I have added some spaces (not many) for readability, but you really need just one space in the whole awk program, the space after print.
If file includes # comments they will be preserved.
Here's an awk implementation
/^option *=/ {
print "option=value"; # print this instead of the original line
done=1; # set a flag, that the line was found
next # all done for this line
}
{print} # all other lines -> print them
END { # end of file
if(done != 1) # haven't found /option=/ -> add it at the end of output
print "option=value"
}
Run it using
awk -f update.awk < /etc/fdm_monitor.conf > /etc/fdm_monitor.conf.tmp && \
mv /etc/fdm_monitor.conf.tmp /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
or
awk -f update.awk < /etc/fdm_monitor.conf | sponge /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
EDIT:
As a one-liner:
awk '/^option *=/ {print "option=value";d=1;next}{print}END{if(d!=1)print "option=value"}' /etc/fdm_monitor.conf | sponge /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
use awk
awk 'FNR==NR && /configs.*projectname\.conf/{f=1;next}f==0;END{ if(!f) { print "your line"}} ' file file
sed -i 's/^option.*/option=value/g' /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
grep -q "option=value" /etc/fdm_monitor.conf || echo "option=value" >> /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
here is an awk one-liner:
awk -v s="option=value" '/^option/{f=1;$0=s}7;END{if(!f)print s}' file
this doesn't do in-place change on the file, you can however :
awk '...' file > tmpfile && mv tmpfile file
Using sed, you could say:
sed -e '/option=/{s/.*/option=value/;:a;n;:ba;q}' -e 'aoption=value' filename
This would replace the parameter if it exists, else would add it to the bottom of the file.
Use the -i option if you want to edit the file in-place:
sed -i -e '/option=/{s/.*/option=value/;:a;n;:ba;q}' -e 'aoption=value' filename
sed -i '1 h
1 !H
$ {
x
s/^option.*/option=value/g
t
s/$/\
option=value/
}' /etc/fdm_monitor.conf
Load all the file in buffer, at the end, change all occurence and if no change occur, add to the end
The answers using grep are wrong. You need to add an -x option to match the entire line otherwise lines like #text to add will still match when looking to add exactly text to add.
So the correct solution is something like:
grep -qxF 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' foo.bar || echo 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' >> foo.bar
Using sed: It will insert at the end of line. You can also pass in variables as usual of course.
grep -qxF "port=9033" $light.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
sed -i "$ a port=9033" $light.conf
else
echo "port=9033 already added"
fi
Using oneliner sed
grep -qxF "port=9033" $lightconf || sed -i "$ a port=9033" $lightconf
Using echo may not work under root, but will work like this. But it will not let you automate things if you are looking to do it since it might ask for password.
I had a problem when I was trying to edit from the root for a particular user. Just adding the $username before was a fix for me.
grep -qxF "port=9033" light.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
sudo -u $user_name echo "port=9033" >> light.conf
else
echo "already there"
fi
I elaborated on kev's grep/sed solution by setting variables in order to reduce duplication.
Set the variables in the first line (hint: $_option shall match everything on the line up until the value [including any seperator like = or :]).
_file="/etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf" _option="mailhub=" _value="my.domain.tld" \
sh -c '\
grep -q "^$_option" "$_file" \
&& sed -i "s/^$_option.*/$_option$_value/" "$_file" \
|| echo "$_option$_value" >> "$_file"\
'
Mind that the sh -c '...' just has the effect of widening the scope of the variables without the need for an export. (See Setting an environment variable before a command in bash not working for second command in a pipe)
You can use this function to find and search config changes:
#!/bin/bash
#Find and Replace config values
find_and_replace_config () {
file=$1
var=$2
new_value=$3
awk -v var="$var" -v new_val="$new_value" 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="="}match($1, "^\\s*" var "\\s*") {$2=" " new_val}1' "$file" > output.tmp && sudo mv output.tmp $file
}
find_and_replace_config /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini max_execution_time 60
If you want to run this command using a python script within a Linux terminal...
import os,sys
LINE = 'include '+ <insert_line_STRING>
FILE = <insert_file_path_STRING>
os.system('grep -qxF $"'+LINE+'" '+FILE+' || echo $"'+LINE+'" >> '+FILE)
The $ and double quotations had me in a jungle, but this worked.
Thanks everyone
Try:
LINE='include "/configs/projectname.conf"'
sed -n "\|$LINE|q;\$a $LINE" lighttpd.conf >> lighttpd.conf
Use the pipe as separator and quit if $LINE has been found. Otherwise, append $LINE at the end.
Since we only read the file in sed command, I suppose we have no clobber issue in general (it depends on your shell settings).
Using only sed I'd suggest the following solution:
sed -i \
-e 's#^include "/configs/projectname.conf"#include "/configs/projectname.conf"#' \
-e t \
-e '$ainclude "/configs/projectname.conf"' lighttpd.conf
s replace the line include "/configs/projectname.conf with itself (using # as delimiter here)
t if the replacement was successful skip the rest of the commands
$a otherwise jump to the last line and append include "/configs/projectname.conf after it
Almost all of the answers work but not in all scenarios or OS as per my experience. Only thing that worked on older systems and new and different flavours of OS is the following.
I needed to append KUBECONFIG path to bashrc file if it doesnt exist. So, what I did is
I assume that it exists and delete it.
with sed I append the string I want.
sed -i '/KUBECONFIG=/d' ~/.bashrc
echo 'export KUBECONFIG=/etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml' >> ~/.bashrc
I needed to edit a file with restricted write permissions so needed sudo. working from ghostdog74's answer and using a temp file:
awk 'FNR==NR && /configs.*projectname\.conf/{f=1;next}f==0;END{ if(!f) { print "your line"}} ' file > /tmp/file
sudo mv /tmp/file file

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