sed unix error: unterminated 's' command

Question

Executing this command:

sed -e 's/á/\&#225;/g' ./source_file > ./destiny_file

Shows this error:

sed: -e expression #1, char 14: unterminated `s' command

Sentence is a part of an .sh file.

I had tried on several shells: sh/bash/sch

And the result is the same.

On my system (Debian wheezy LTS, all patches applied), it runs without error message, and it does the right thing. — Binarus
– Binarus, Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 13:37
Also asked in SO.es, also could not reproduce in my GNU sed 4.2.2. — fedorqui
– fedorqui, Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 13:53
What happens, if you replace the á by, say a (just for testing). Still a syntax error? — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 14:12
@user1934428, maybe this is the problem. With "a" the error disappears. — MikelMats
– MikelMats, Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 14:31
I put "sed -e 's/\xE1/\á/g' ./source_file > ./destiny_file" and works perfectly! Thanks to all! — MikelMats
– MikelMats, Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 14:36

MikelMats · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-17 15:46:44Z

2

The solution was to codify "á" as "xE1":

sed -e 's/\xE1/\&#225\x3B/g'

This works ok!

answered Nov 17, 2017 at 15:46

MikelMats

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