Using sed in terminal to replace text in file

Question

I have this text in this file:

test.php

$databases = array (
  'default' => 
  array (
    'default' => 
    array (
      'database' => 'original',
      'username' => 'root',
      'password' => 'root',
      'host' => 'localhost'
    ),
  ),
);

In terminal run this line to replace 'original' with 'new'

sed -i 's/original/new/g' test.php

UPDATE: The error message is:

sed: 1: "test.php": undefined label 'est.php'

What is the problem?

UPDATE 2:

If I just run: ( I removed '-i')

sed 's/original/new/g' test.php

I see the file text modified in the terminal. But then the file is not saved.

It's rather unlikely to get the error message you've mentioned by issuing `sed -i 's/original/new/g' test.php`. What command did you use? — devnull, Jan 20 '14 at 07:33
possible duplicate of [why "extra characters after command" error shown for the sed command line shown?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17924737/why-extra-characters-after-command-error-shown-for-the-sed-command-line-shown) — tripleee, Jan 20 '14 at 07:39
I found that problem is the '-i'. If I run just 'sed 's/original/new/g' test.php' (I removed '-i') it works but the file is not saved. — chefnelone, Jan 20 '14 at 12:05
@devnull Sorry you were right. The error message is this one: sed: 1: "test.php": undefined label 'est.php' — chefnelone, Jan 20 '14 at 12:18
@chefnelone You haven't still showed the actual problem code. It seems that the linked duplicate question would resolve the issue you're facing. — devnull, Jan 20 '14 at 12:21
@devnull I updated my question with the right error message. I tried using other delimiter as said in the other question link but it didn't work. — chefnelone, Jan 20 '14 at 12:23
@chefnelone Are the pattern & replacement strings variables? — devnull, Jan 20 '14 at 12:24

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '14 at 12:27

23

On BSDish platforms (including Mac OSX), the -i option requires an argument.

sed -i '' 's/original/new/g' test.php

Notice the empty argument ''.

answered Jan 20 '14 at 12:27

tripleee

175,061
34
275
318

If you don't ever expect multiple matches on a single line, the `/g` flag is superfluous. – tripleee Dec 11 '18 at 05:23
Related: options for doing `sed -i` portably: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5694228/sed-in-place-flag-that-works-both-on-mac-bsd-and-linux – tripleee Dec 13 '18 at 16:12

Using sed in terminal to replace text in file

1 Answers1