Change value in a file using perl or shell script

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

hi,

I have a local.conf file which has the first line

TOPDIR = "/home/mvdev/workspace/boxer". I want to replace the value to
"/home/common/workspace/mirror". I tried the following perl command that is

perl -p -i -e 's/Path/path1/g' myfile.txt

then

sed '/home/mvdev/workspace/boxer/c \> /home/common/workspace/mirror' local.conf

It did not work. Can you help.

Thnx

amvarma

2 
sed '1 s:/home/mvdev/workspace/boxer:/home/common/workspace/mirror:' local.conf
3

Thanks Rudic,

when I ran the command, it displayed that it changed, but when I open it separately I dont see the value updated.

4

You need to send the result to some other file like

sed '1 s:/home/mvdev/workspace/boxer:/home/common/workspace/mirror:' local.conf > local1.conf

and then move it back to local.conf

mv local1.conf local.conf
5

Yes, as Vikram says, redirect the output to a file and then rename, unless your sed has the -i option (edit in place). BUT - I'd rather be careful editing system files in place. Better check result in time.

6

if we use -i option, will it avoid the rename opion

7

Hi

Use your perl command like this:

$ p1="/home/mvdev/workspace/boxer"
$ p2="p2="/home/common/workspace/mirror"
$ perl -i -pne "s|$p1|$p2|;" file

Guru.

8

Yes if you use

sed -i command

then no need to move the file.