grep and replace multiple strings between multiple files

Question

I have multiple XML files with strings that are all set to

<msg type="Status"

Some of these strings should be type "Warning" and I have a separate text file with the warning strings.

I can do a

grep -f strings.txt *.xml

this allows me to see which warning strings are incorrectly listed as status strings. What I would like to do is

grep -f strings.txt *.xml | sed 's/status/warning/'

This gives me my desired output, but it is only being displayed (not saved). There are multiple xml files so i can't just save the output to one file. I need sed to replace the string in the original .xml file it originated from. Thanks for your help.

It'll save you a lot of grief - you can pass multiple xml files and use the --pattern option to use xpath to search it. — brandonscript
– brandonscript, Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 18:47

0x90 · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-09 19:59:58Z

2

you were close instead of grep -f strings.txt *.xml | sed 's/status/warning/'

do

grep -l strings.txt *.xml | xargs sed -i 's/status/warning/g'

you forgot to use xargs, read here for more info about xargs.

edited Dec 9, 2013 at 19:59

answered Dec 9, 2013 at 19:19

0x90

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6 Comments

lacosteaef Over a year ago

only using -rl doesn't produce anything, sorry for all the questions

0x90 Over a year ago

run this command: grep -l strings.txt *.xml | xargs sed -i 's/status/warning/g' I fixed it.

lacosteaef Over a year ago

If it do grep -f strings.txt *.xml i see all my shared lines. If i grep -l strings.txt *.xml I don't get any output. Thanks for all the troubleshooting help.

lacosteaef Over a year ago

Specifically I see something like this vnlrmsg.xml:<msg type="Status" text="$$s$$s was previously declared with a different range. (VNLR-1050)" uid="1050"/>

lacosteaef Over a year ago

In the end it worked. I'm using cygwin on this box and I had to use dos2unix on my files for everything to work correctly. Thanks.

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brandonscript · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-09 18:48:10Z

0

Recommend trying xmllint. Using the --pattern option, you can specify xpath search queries to search for exactly what you need it to find without complicated regular expressions.

answered Dec 9, 2013 at 18:48

brandonscript

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1 Comment

lacosteaef Over a year ago

Thanks, i'm looking up its usage now. Hopefully it does the trick.

alex · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-09 19:02:36Z

0

There is an Perl script xml_grep using xpath as query language: http://search.cpan.org/dist/XML-Twig/tools/xml_grep/xml_grep

xml_grep '//msg[@type="Warning"]' *.xml

answered Dec 9, 2013 at 19:02

alex

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