Re: multiple-file search & replace

[Brian Boonstra <boonstb@cmg.FCNBD.COM>]

Guilherme Soares Zahn (IEN) wrote:
> I was wondering if there is a tool to help me search & replace a given
> keyword in all files inside a directory (and its subdirectories)... For
> instance, imagine that I wanted to change, in ALL makefiles of the Linux
> kernel source, the name of the compiler to use...


I like to type the following in zsh:

foreach i ( `echo **/Make*` )
  replace '/bin/cc' '/usr/local/bin/cc' < $i > /tmp/tempfile;
  mv /tmp/tempfile $i;




where replace is a perl script I slapped together that looks like below, and  
the **/ construct recursively searches subdirectories.  I would love to know  
if someone has a better version, but this one at least keeps me from having  
to remember lots of syntax all the time:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl5


###
### Created by Brian K. Boonstra
###
### Replace a
###
###

        $/ = undef;
        $find = @ARGV[0];
        $replace = @ARGV[1];
        if ($find eq "") {
                print "replace <find-string> <replace-string>\n\nTake input fr
om stdin, replace the <find-string> with\n<replace-string>, and output to stdo
ut.  The find and\nreplace strings should follow Perl syntax.\n\n";
                exit(0);
        }
        $mystring = <STDIN>;

        $mystring =~ s/$find/$replace/sg;
        print $mystring;