Help - delete content inside square brackets under conditions

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I have the file sed1.txt and I need to strip the brackets ([
[*]]) and content inside them only when
I have two or three letters followed by a colon.

for example,it may be any letter, not just abc
[[ab:]]
[[abc:]]

#-- cat sed1.txt
1 [[special:linguagem]] FISICA
2 [[ba:matematica:portugues]]PORTUGUES
3 [[zz:aldkljfdljdf:]] [[xy:klsdfafds99:dlfkljlkfdk]]MATEMATICA
4 [[aa:098sdf90df]][[xy:sdfakjlkfsdj]]INGLES [[agh:dkfjlfdjdf]]
5 [[wordtree:wordtreetree:tree]]QUIMICA
6 ARQUITETURA [[gg:eeoeoeoe:pepepep:eoeeeo]]ROMANA
[[as:dlfksjkldf:slkjlkfdjskldf]]7 ENGENHARIA [[aa:lksdfjlkdjfs]]ELETRICA
8 MECATRONICA [[xas:dkfljldfsaklfds]]FRANCES[[ax:skldfjlkdsf:ljsdlfkjldfs]]
9 [[bb:dsflkjladskffds]]LITERATURA [[xx:dsfaa90ssdf90sdf:ajsdfflasd]]
10[[agroneg:ArrOzFeijao | batata]][[xca:lkdjlkasdf:ldjfalkjfsd:lkdsjlkfjd�]] MEDICINA[[sa:dsflkjkldfs]]
11[[ax:lksdjfkl]] [[ss:dljsaflk]] SED [[sx:sdjflkjfsda]]- AWK
12[[xbc:lkjaflkjfds]] UNIX [[ax:kjdlfjdfskadf]]LINUX[[xu:kldfsjkljdfs]] PERL    [[gg:lksdfjlk:jljsdlkjfds:lkjlkjflds]][[hg:dfjkjfdkjfd]][[xdc:dkdkdkdkdk]][[kd:dflkjdfklkldf:djfjklfdasjfadk:jkafdsjklfdsjkldfas:*/*/*/*/]]

I managed to get this:

# sed -e 's/\[\[.\{2,3\}:.*[^]].*\]\]//g' sed1.txt 

1 [[special:linguagem]] FISICA
2 PORTUGUES
3 MATEMATICA
4 
5 [[wordtree:wordtreetree:tree]]QUIMICA
6 ARQUITETURA ROMANA
ELETRICA
8 MECATRONICA 
9 
10[[agroneg:ArrOzFeijao | batata]]
11- AWK
12

--------------
#-- sed .... the real result should be:

1 [[special:linguagem]] FISICA
2 PORTUGUES
3 MATEMATICA
4 INGLES
5 [[wordtree:wordtreetree:tree]]QUIMICA
6 ARQUITETURA ROMANA
7 ENGENHARIA ELETRICA
8 MECATRONICA FRANCES
9 LITERATURA
10[[agroneg:ArrOzFeijao | batata]]MEDICINA
11 SED - AWK
12 UNIX LINUX PERL

--------------------------------------------
What do I have to change in the script ?

2

You were very close, .* is greedy and will match the longest string it can.

You need this:

$ sed -e 's/\[\[.\{2,3\}:[^]]*\]\]//g' sed1.txt
1 [[special:linguagem]] FISICA
2 PORTUGUES
3  MATEMATICA
4 INGLES 
5 [[wordtree:wordtreetree:tree]]QUIMICA
6 ARQUITETURA ROMANA
7 ENGENHARIA ELETRICA
8 MECATRONICA FRANCES
9 LITERATURA 
10[[agroneg:ArrOzFeijao | batata]] MEDICINA
11  SED - AWK
12 UNIX LINUX PERL
2 Likes
3

Thank you very much. I was struggling with it because it's been a long time since i don't use shell script.