replace all '/' with '\/' in bash/shell script

Question

This might be very simple but I am stuck at getting this done in shell/bash. I have input like "a/b/c/d" and I want to replace all '/' with '\/' and the output would be 'a/b/c/d'

another example is 12.12.12.12/32 >>> 12.12.12.12\/32

Any help would be appreciated.

Currently, your question is not legible or comprehensible. Please use the formatting tools to show raw characters. For starters, you could put the example parts between backticks `...` — chryss
– chryss, Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 0:40
I've edited the question to make backslashes visible (as @chryss suggested) -- if this is not what's intended, please revert the edit. — Gordon Davisson
– Gordon Davisson, Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 0:48
Why do you want to do this? It's not to make it acceptable to sed is it? — that other guy
– that other guy, Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 1:07
exactly, I need it just to make 'sed' acceptable...is there any other way around then probably I do not need replace at all? — Avijit Chatterjee
– Avijit Chatterjee, Commented Oct 4, 2018 at 2:11

xhienne · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-04 00:55:42Z

7

You can use bash's parameter expansion:

$ input="a/b/c/d"
$ echo "${input//\//\\/}"
a\/b\/c\/d

Given a variable input, ${input//xxx/yyy} yields the content of input with every xxx replaced with yyy. Here xxx is \/ (/ must be escaped to not be mixed up with the next /) and yyy is \\/ (\/ with \ being escaped).

edited Oct 4, 2018 at 0:55

answered Oct 4, 2018 at 0:50

xhienne

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Comments

codeforester · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-04 01:22:21Z

0

Using bash only

var='a/b/c/d'
echo "${var//\//\\/}"

edited Oct 4, 2018 at 1:22

codeforester

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answered Oct 4, 2018 at 0:51

Diego Torres Milano

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Comments

ashish_k · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-04 03:55:22Z

0

This would do:

echo "12.12.12.12/32" |sed 's,/,\\/,g'

Output:

12.12.12.12\/32

In such scenarios, use a delimiter other than /, as i used , in the above example. You can use for example: #,?....etc

answered Oct 4, 2018 at 3:55

ashish_k

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Comments

chryss · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-04 05:38:38Z

0

Depending on how you access the text or strings you want to make the replacement in, something like this might work. You have to escape both / and \ inside the sed command.

var='a/b/c/d'
echo "$var" | sed 's/\//\\\//g'

edited Oct 4, 2018 at 5:38

answered Oct 4, 2018 at 0:47

chryss

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3 Comments

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

echo "$var", not echo $var; see BashPitfalls #14. If the user's input were * / * / 3 / 4, leaving the expansion unquoted would result in output containing a list of files.

chryss Over a year ago

OK, fair enough, for style reasons. I've made the change. However, I don't for a second expect that part to be relevant to the OP's script - I just added it to have something to hang the sed command on, and given I provided the input, I control it.

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

If we're a teaching resource, it's important to demonstrate practices that are safe to apply broadly. Part of why the ABS is considered such a poor resource in the bash community isn't so much outright inaccuracies (though there are a few) as examples that showcase unsafe practices; those practices tend to get copied and applied, even when their presence is only incidental, leading to people who learned from the ABS writing bad code.

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