regex replace string path in quotes

Question

hello i have a config file with end like this on many server so i need to add # in the begin of the line

"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\DesktopProtection\UpdateLog.txt" 8h warning * 0800 1800

"C:\EURNTCC\mcafee\sucessfull-update.log.txt" 8h warning * 0800 1800

i made a little script like this

$file="\\server\C$\osit\etc\act_mon.cfg"

$text1='"C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\MCAFEE\DESKTOPPROTECTION\UPDATELOG.TXT"'

$text2='"C:\EURNTCC\MCAFEE\SUCESSFULL-UPDATE.LOG.TXT"'

 (gc $file) -replace $text2 ,("#" + $text1) |Set-Content $file
 (gc $file) -replace $text2 ,("#" + $text2) |Set-Content $file

i have this error any help to understand this error , i have 650 server to update

The regular expression pattern "C:\EURNTCC\MCAFEE\SUCESSFULL-UPDATE.LOG.TXT" is not valid. At line:1 char:1

(gc $file) -replace $text1 ,("#" + $text1) |Set-Content $file

  + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: ("C:\EURNTCC\MCA...UPDATE.LOG.TXT":String) [], RuntimeException
  + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidRegularExpression

Theo · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-04 15:01:58Z

2

-replace uses Regex. The strings you want it to search for have characters that have special meaning in regex that need to be prefixed with a backslash. (most notably the dots and backslashes)

You don't have to do this manually but you can use the static method Escape() from the [regex] type accelerator:

$text1 = '"C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\MCAFEE\DESKTOPPROTECTION\UPDATELOG.TXT"'
$text2 = '"C:\EURNTCC\MCAFEE\SUCESSFULL-UPDATE.LOG.TXT"'

$search1 = [regex]::Escape($text1)
$search2 = [regex]::Escape($text2)

Also, you can chain replace so you don't have to get the content twice:

(Get-Content $file) -replace $search1 ,("#" + $text1) -replace $search2 ,("#" + $text2) | Set-Content $file

edited Dec 4, 2020 at 15:01

answered Dec 4, 2020 at 14:50

Theo

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