Bash converting path names for sed so they escape [duplicate]
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This question already has an answer here:
How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars
1 answer
I'm having a problem with a script. It is meant to change a value in a file called %DIR% so that it becomes a path name. The problem is the slashes in the directory name upset sed, so I get weird errors. I need to convert the slashes in the path name into escaped slashes.
So /var/www would become /var/www
But I don't know how to do this.
Currently the script runs sed with this:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory/g" "$config"
bash sed quoting string escape-characters
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
marked as duplicate by Stéphane Chazelas bash
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Oct 1 at 8:43
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
This question already has an answer here:
How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars
1 answer
I'm having a problem with a script. It is meant to change a value in a file called %DIR% so that it becomes a path name. The problem is the slashes in the directory name upset sed, so I get weird errors. I need to convert the slashes in the path name into escaped slashes.
So /var/www would become /var/www
But I don't know how to do this.
Currently the script runs sed with this:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory/g" "$config"
bash sed quoting string escape-characters
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
marked as duplicate by Stéphane Chazelas bash
Users with the  bash badge can single-handedly close bash questions as duplicates and reopen them as needed.
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Oct 1 at 8:43
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
2
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
1
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim". It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps
– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
This question already has an answer here:
How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars
1 answer
I'm having a problem with a script. It is meant to change a value in a file called %DIR% so that it becomes a path name. The problem is the slashes in the directory name upset sed, so I get weird errors. I need to convert the slashes in the path name into escaped slashes.
So /var/www would become /var/www
But I don't know how to do this.
Currently the script runs sed with this:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory/g" "$config"
bash sed quoting string escape-characters
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
This question already has an answer here:
How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars
1 answer
I'm having a problem with a script. It is meant to change a value in a file called %DIR% so that it becomes a path name. The problem is the slashes in the directory name upset sed, so I get weird errors. I need to convert the slashes in the path name into escaped slashes.
So /var/www would become /var/www
But I don't know how to do this.
Currently the script runs sed with this:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory/g" "$config"
This question already has an answer here:
How to ensure that string interpolated into `sed` substitution escapes all metachars
1 answer
bash sed quoting string escape-characters
bash sed quoting string escape-characters
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
edited Feb 23 '16 at 23:26
Gilles
512k12010151547
512k12010151547
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
asked Feb 23 '16 at 17:08
John Tate
68411223
68411223
marked as duplicate by Stéphane Chazelas bash
Users with the  bash badge can single-handedly close bash questions as duplicates and reopen them as needed.
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Oct 1 at 8:43
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Oct 1 at 8:43
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
2
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
1
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim". It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps
– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34
add a comment |Â
2
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
1
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim". It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps
– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34
2
2
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
1
1
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :
delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim" . It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :
delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim" . It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34
add a comment |Â
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
up vote
10
down vote
accepted
Since you say you are using Bash, you can use Parameter Expansion to insert the slashes:
$ directory=/var/www
$ echo "$directory////\/"
/var/www
This breaks up as
- substitute
directory - replacing every (
//) - slash (
/) - with (
/) - backslash+slash (
\/).
Putting this into your sed command gives:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory////\//g" "$config"
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Use parameter expansion / substitution:
$directory////\/
Explanation
$directory // / / \/
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
| | | replacement, backslash needs to be backslashed
| | delimiter
| string
global
substitution
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
You can use bash's string manipulation facilities provided by parameter expansion, specifically the $VARIABLE//PATTERN/REPLACEMENT form. Keep in mind that / isn't the only character that needs replacing: in an s replacement, the characters , &, newline, and the s separator all need to be prefixed with a backslash.
replacement=$directory
replacement=$replacement//\/\\
replacement=$replacement////\/
replacement=$replacement//&/\&
replacement=$replacement//$'n'/\$'n'
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$replacement/g" -- "$config"
Alternatively, use a tool that doesn't require such quoting, such as awk or Perl.
directory=$directory awk 'gsub(/%DIR%/, ENVIRON["directory"]) 1' <"$config" >"$config.new" &&
mv -- "$config.new" "$config"
or
directory=$directory perl -i -pe 's/%DIR%/$ENVdirectory/g' "$config"
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
The other answers here are already great, but I just wanted to add that you can use a different delimiter besides / with sed. I do this whenever I need to operate on input that contains /:
sed -i "s@%DIR%@$directory@g" "$config"
Or even:
sed -i "s#%DIR%#$directory#g" "$config"
It's all the same to sed; it will use whatever character you specify after the s as the delimiter.
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
add a comment |Â
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
10
down vote
accepted
Since you say you are using Bash, you can use Parameter Expansion to insert the slashes:
$ directory=/var/www
$ echo "$directory////\/"
/var/www
This breaks up as
- substitute
directory - replacing every (
//) - slash (
/) - with (
/) - backslash+slash (
\/).
Putting this into your sed command gives:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory////\//g" "$config"
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
add a comment |Â
up vote
10
down vote
accepted
Since you say you are using Bash, you can use Parameter Expansion to insert the slashes:
$ directory=/var/www
$ echo "$directory////\/"
/var/www
This breaks up as
- substitute
directory - replacing every (
//) - slash (
/) - with (
/) - backslash+slash (
\/).
Putting this into your sed command gives:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory////\//g" "$config"
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
add a comment |Â
up vote
10
down vote
accepted
up vote
10
down vote
accepted
Since you say you are using Bash, you can use Parameter Expansion to insert the slashes:
$ directory=/var/www
$ echo "$directory////\/"
/var/www
This breaks up as
- substitute
directory - replacing every (
//) - slash (
/) - with (
/) - backslash+slash (
\/).
Putting this into your sed command gives:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory////\//g" "$config"
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
Since you say you are using Bash, you can use Parameter Expansion to insert the slashes:
$ directory=/var/www
$ echo "$directory////\/"
/var/www
This breaks up as
- substitute
directory - replacing every (
//) - slash (
/) - with (
/) - backslash+slash (
\/).
Putting this into your sed command gives:
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$directory////\//g" "$config"
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
edited Oct 1 at 7:49
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:14
Toby Speight
5,1211930
5,1211930
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Use parameter expansion / substitution:
$directory////\/
Explanation
$directory // / / \/
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
| | | replacement, backslash needs to be backslashed
| | delimiter
| string
global
substitution
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Use parameter expansion / substitution:
$directory////\/
Explanation
$directory // / / \/
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
| | | replacement, backslash needs to be backslashed
| | delimiter
| string
global
substitution
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
Use parameter expansion / substitution:
$directory////\/
Explanation
$directory // / / \/
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
| | | replacement, backslash needs to be backslashed
| | delimiter
| string
global
substitution
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
Use parameter expansion / substitution:
$directory////\/
Explanation
$directory // / / \/
^ ^ ^ ^
| | | |
| | | replacement, backslash needs to be backslashed
| | delimiter
| string
global
substitution
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
edited Feb 23 '16 at 17:25
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
answered Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
choroba
25k34168
25k34168
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
You can use bash's string manipulation facilities provided by parameter expansion, specifically the $VARIABLE//PATTERN/REPLACEMENT form. Keep in mind that / isn't the only character that needs replacing: in an s replacement, the characters , &, newline, and the s separator all need to be prefixed with a backslash.
replacement=$directory
replacement=$replacement//\/\\
replacement=$replacement////\/
replacement=$replacement//&/\&
replacement=$replacement//$'n'/\$'n'
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$replacement/g" -- "$config"
Alternatively, use a tool that doesn't require such quoting, such as awk or Perl.
directory=$directory awk 'gsub(/%DIR%/, ENVIRON["directory"]) 1' <"$config" >"$config.new" &&
mv -- "$config.new" "$config"
or
directory=$directory perl -i -pe 's/%DIR%/$ENVdirectory/g' "$config"
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
You can use bash's string manipulation facilities provided by parameter expansion, specifically the $VARIABLE//PATTERN/REPLACEMENT form. Keep in mind that / isn't the only character that needs replacing: in an s replacement, the characters , &, newline, and the s separator all need to be prefixed with a backslash.
replacement=$directory
replacement=$replacement//\/\\
replacement=$replacement////\/
replacement=$replacement//&/\&
replacement=$replacement//$'n'/\$'n'
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$replacement/g" -- "$config"
Alternatively, use a tool that doesn't require such quoting, such as awk or Perl.
directory=$directory awk 'gsub(/%DIR%/, ENVIRON["directory"]) 1' <"$config" >"$config.new" &&
mv -- "$config.new" "$config"
or
directory=$directory perl -i -pe 's/%DIR%/$ENVdirectory/g' "$config"
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
You can use bash's string manipulation facilities provided by parameter expansion, specifically the $VARIABLE//PATTERN/REPLACEMENT form. Keep in mind that / isn't the only character that needs replacing: in an s replacement, the characters , &, newline, and the s separator all need to be prefixed with a backslash.
replacement=$directory
replacement=$replacement//\/\\
replacement=$replacement////\/
replacement=$replacement//&/\&
replacement=$replacement//$'n'/\$'n'
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$replacement/g" -- "$config"
Alternatively, use a tool that doesn't require such quoting, such as awk or Perl.
directory=$directory awk 'gsub(/%DIR%/, ENVIRON["directory"]) 1' <"$config" >"$config.new" &&
mv -- "$config.new" "$config"
or
directory=$directory perl -i -pe 's/%DIR%/$ENVdirectory/g' "$config"
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
You can use bash's string manipulation facilities provided by parameter expansion, specifically the $VARIABLE//PATTERN/REPLACEMENT form. Keep in mind that / isn't the only character that needs replacing: in an s replacement, the characters , &, newline, and the s separator all need to be prefixed with a backslash.
replacement=$directory
replacement=$replacement//\/\\
replacement=$replacement////\/
replacement=$replacement//&/\&
replacement=$replacement//$'n'/\$'n'
sed -i "s/%DIR%/$replacement/g" -- "$config"
Alternatively, use a tool that doesn't require such quoting, such as awk or Perl.
directory=$directory awk 'gsub(/%DIR%/, ENVIRON["directory"]) 1' <"$config" >"$config.new" &&
mv -- "$config.new" "$config"
or
directory=$directory perl -i -pe 's/%DIR%/$ENVdirectory/g' "$config"
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
answered Feb 24 '16 at 1:06
Gilles
512k12010151547
512k12010151547
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
The other answers here are already great, but I just wanted to add that you can use a different delimiter besides / with sed. I do this whenever I need to operate on input that contains /:
sed -i "s@%DIR%@$directory@g" "$config"
Or even:
sed -i "s#%DIR%#$directory#g" "$config"
It's all the same to sed; it will use whatever character you specify after the s as the delimiter.
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
The other answers here are already great, but I just wanted to add that you can use a different delimiter besides / with sed. I do this whenever I need to operate on input that contains /:
sed -i "s@%DIR%@$directory@g" "$config"
Or even:
sed -i "s#%DIR%#$directory#g" "$config"
It's all the same to sed; it will use whatever character you specify after the s as the delimiter.
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
The other answers here are already great, but I just wanted to add that you can use a different delimiter besides / with sed. I do this whenever I need to operate on input that contains /:
sed -i "s@%DIR%@$directory@g" "$config"
Or even:
sed -i "s#%DIR%#$directory#g" "$config"
It's all the same to sed; it will use whatever character you specify after the s as the delimiter.
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
The other answers here are already great, but I just wanted to add that you can use a different delimiter besides / with sed. I do this whenever I need to operate on input that contains /:
sed -i "s@%DIR%@$directory@g" "$config"
Or even:
sed -i "s#%DIR%#$directory#g" "$config"
It's all the same to sed; it will use whatever character you specify after the s as the delimiter.
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
answered Feb 24 '16 at 21:19
Will
1,451722
1,451722
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
2
Why not just change the sed delimiter?
– Bratchley
Feb 23 '16 at 17:12
1
@Bratchley, probably because any delimiter you choose could be present in a file name (you can't use the NUL character: sed complains with "unterminated 's' command").
– Toby Speight
Feb 23 '16 at 17:20
@TobySpeight there are many different delimiters you can pick from. I highly doubt an asterisk would be in the filename, though.
– Bratchley
Feb 24 '16 at 15:56
I doubt it too. But being able to handle those cases is helpful when you might be dealing with hostile inputs (I'll leave it as an exercise to decide whether Bash is the right tool in such circumstances...).
– Toby Speight
Feb 27 at 9:04
Using ctrl-A as a delimiter is quite safely uniq :
delim=$(printf '01') ; sed -e "s$delimregexp$delimreplacement$delim". It doesn't have to be different from everything sed SEES but from everything is at "regexp" and "replacement" ... which is usually printable characters and regexps– Olivier Dulac
Oct 1 at 13:34