Search and replace string in folder shell script

Question

I'm using the below script to search and replace string in a folder. How can i modify the code to read read multiple $searchname and $replacename from a text file and replace the words in original folders?

here are the folders:

main folder: /USERS/path/to/test/

inside test folder :

data.txt   original/  script.sh  tmp/

inside original folder :

file1.txt file2.php ...........

inside data.txt:

a1 a2
b1 b2
c1 c2

script for search and replace:

 !/bin/bash

 FOLDER="/Users/path/to/test/original/"
 echo "******************************************"
 echo enter word to replace
 read searchterm
 echo enter word that replaces
 read replaceterm



   for file in $(grep -l -R $searchterm $FOLDER) 


      do

   sed -e "s/$searchterm/$replaceterm/g" $file > /Users/path/to/test/tmp/tempfile.tmp 
       mv /Users/path/to/test/tmp/tempfile.tmp $file

       echo "Modified: " $file

    done




   echo " *** All Done! *** "

Thanks in advance.

As an aside, you can sed -i -e "s/$search/$replace/g" $file to do the sed in-place, meaning no need to > tempfile and rename. — mathematical.coffee
– mathematical.coffee, Commented Jan 30, 2012 at 2:44
Thanks but then I have to clean up backup files created (with -e at their ends), how can i send modified files to a new folder? thanks — john206
– john206, Commented Jan 30, 2012 at 3:43

thinkski · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-30 03:11:52Z

3

Setup the file of search and replace terms (i'm going to call it search_and_replace.txt) to look like:

searchone/replaceone
searchtwo/replacetwo
foo/bar
...

Then your bash script becomes:

!/bin/bash

FOLDER="/Users/path/to/test/original/"

while read line; do
    for file in `find $FOLDER -type f`; do
        sed -i -e "s/$line/g" $file
    done
done < search_and_replace_terms.txt

No need to pre-search with grep I think.

answered Jan 30, 2012 at 3:11

thinkski

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3 Comments

john206 Over a year ago

I did as you suggested but the code worked only for the first line in search_and_replace_terms.txt

thinkski Over a year ago

I'm guessing you only had two lines in the file. Try adding a newline to the end of the file. Sometimes if there's no end-of-line, only an end-of-file, the last line gets read but read exists with an error.

john206 Over a year ago

You were right. I added a new line and it worked liked a charm. Thank you very much. Would you please tell me how can I get rid of files ending with -e or -e-e ?

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