Re: Replace line in file based on pattern
Hello,
On Sun, Jan 02, 2022 at 05:52:36PM -0500, Paul M. Foster wrote:
> In a script, I'd like to search for a pattern in a file, and replace that
> line entirely with a new line, once (not globally). I've tried
>
> sed -i s/search/new_line/
>
> but this only replaces the string itself. I want the script to find the line
> my search term is on, and replace the whole line with my replacement line.
Match the whole line, not just the string.
sed -i 's/^.*search.*$/new line/' filename
The ^ and $ anchor at start and end respectively and the .* matches
everything.
You can instead use sed's 'c' modifier to tell it to replace the
whole line:
sed -i '/search/new line/c' filename
but I personally prefer to give exact matches.
Cheers,
Andy
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