sed replace command inside of a bash script?

Question

I have a problem replacing a command inside of a script, the offending line in the script looks like this:

mail -s "$(hostname) on $(date)"

It should be replaced with a line like this:

nail -r "[email protected]" -s "Subject" -S smtp=255.255.255.255

But I can't get sed to do a replacement :) I wrote a small script for that purpose:

#!/bin/bash

old="mail -s \"\$(hostname) on \$(date)"
new="nail -r \"[email protected]\" -s \"Subject\" -S smtp=255.255.255.255"

sed -i 's|$old|$new|' script.sh

Does anyone have any advice?

Michael Krelin - hacker · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-17 12:20:11Z

3

sed -i "s|$old|$new|" script.sh

Note the double quotes.

answered Sep 17, 2009 at 12:20

Michael Krelin - hacker

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1 Comment

f10bit Over a year ago

Thank you for pointing out this stupid mistake :) I've been using sed to replace and append double quotes where needed and got tired of escaping them all the time so i just started to put in single quotes and forgot about it :)

ennuikiller · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-17 12:19:37Z

1

Sed by default does not do in Place editing. If you are using gnu Sed try providing the in place flag -ikbak

answered Sep 17, 2009 at 12:19

ennuikiller

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1 Comment

Dennis Williamson Over a year ago

The OP has the -i option in place. The only difference is that yours causes a backup to be created with the (unusual?) suffix "kbak".

egmo · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-18 19:57:58Z

0

Better use ed!

http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php?id=howto:edit-ed

answered Sep 18, 2009 at 19:57

egmo

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