Command to find and replace, but not creating a new file

[18Googol2]

So I have a file, with a bunch of pattern "foo", and I wanna replace them with "bar":

blah1 foo1 blah2 blah3 foo2 blah4foo3

We all know all the pattern can be replaced by `sed` command, the catch is, you need to create a "temp" file to hold the output.

I wouldnt bother if the file size is just a couple of Kb, but, what if its a few hundred of Mb, Im restricted in disk space, then you are in trouble.

I think vim can do this with "-c" switch if iirc, but I believe there is a more elegant command out there...

[anomie]

If I'm understanding your quandary: you can replace values in files "in place" with sed. See the manpages for sed(1) -- the -i option (which can be used with or without making a backup).

--- edit ----

I replied with that info after looking at a FBSD 6.3 box. The 7.0 manpages are slightly different, so you may really need the -I option if you're running 7.

[18Googol2]

I knew there must be one

Actually, I tested both 6.3 and 7.0. "-i" or "-I" switch isnt enough, sed needs "-e" (edit) as well to make it work

Is there any catch? I see ppl tend to dump the output to a temp file, rather than edit the file on the fly :S

[anomie]

Well, the catch is you have no backup. So be careful with that option.

[TerryP]

A more portable approach then relying on GNU SED / FreeBSD SED; might be to use perl, if you know the language.

$ perl -i -pe 's/foo/bar/g' file

NB that because -i renames or deletes the original file before creating a new file of the same name, UNIX-style soft and hard links will not be preserved.


see perlre, perlrequick, perlreref, perlretut manual pages; if necessary for more advanced pattern matching notes.