Replacing strings in files with regex

Question

I've manually removed some superfluous //------------------------------------- comments from all c++ files within a folder and its subfolders here .

Now I thought that it might be possible to replace "//<unknown number of dashes><line break>" with an empty string or a line break via a shell script.

Afterwards I'd want to replace three consecutive line breaks with two line breaks.

Could someone tell me how to achieve this with a shell script?

C++ or Shell script? You tag it C++ while talking about shell script in question. Please make it clear. — herohuyongtao
– herohuyongtao, Commented Feb 22, 2014 at 15:34
I meant a shell command/script to remove comments from c++ files — 804b18f832fb419fb142
– 804b18f832fb419fb142, Commented Feb 22, 2014 at 15:39

SzG · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-22 15:53:28Z

1

To remove all C++ style comments that contain only dashes and optional trailing whitespace:

sed 's|//--* *$||' -i file.cpp

To remove trailing whitespace:

sed 's/ *$//' -i file.cpp

edited Feb 22, 2014 at 15:53

answered Feb 22, 2014 at 15:35

SzG

12.7k4 gold badges31 silver badges43 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

804b18f832fb419fb142 Over a year ago

Does that also remove useful comments?

SzG Over a year ago

Sorry. yes, it does. I'll edit the post immediately.

804b18f832fb419fb142 · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-22 17:33:24Z

0

I added SzG's command to this one to get it to run recursively:

find . -name '*.cxx' | xargs sed 's|// --* *$||' -i

answered Feb 22, 2014 at 17:33

804b18f832fb419fb142

4932 gold badges8 silver badges20 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Replacing strings in files with regex

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related