Re: [Fwd: Re: [LUG] Find & Replace across multiple files]

[Tom Salmon <tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jonathan Melhuish wrote:
> On Monday 02 December 2002  1:50 pm, you wrote:
> [jon@xxxxxxxxx pages]$ for file in *; do sed 
> -e's/\[control-set]*\[\/control-set]/\[comment]control_removed\[\/comment]/g' 
> $file > $file.new; mv -f $file.new $file; done
> sed: can't read aboutus.html.new: No such file or directory

Not sure about this one, probably sed failed to output the file, for 
some reason. Files ending .new are only temporary, there should be none 
present before or after.

> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory
> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory
> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory
> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory
> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory
> sed: read error on {Unknown file pointer}: Is a directory

That command cannot be used on directories. If your files are in many 
directories a more complex script will be required that combines `find` 
and `sed`.

If the files are all in one directory, use 'for file in *.html ...'

> I'm sorry to keep pestering you, I ought to be able to fix these problems 
> myself, but I'm a bit of a command-line newbie (a Child of Windows, now 
> becoming slowly converted to a Brother of Unix).

Takes time, and there's plenty to learn. If you get chance to read the 
man pages for sed and find, best do so. A copy of 'Linux in a Nutshell' 
will do you well.

--
Tom Salmon


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