sed not working correctly when using variables

Question

source=<!--jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source-->

destination=<jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source>


sed -i "s/$source/$destination/g" /home/rohan/R2.5LZN/UIReleasedArea/obp.ui.domain/persistence.xml

I am getting error sed: -e expression #1, char 44: unknown option to s

Possible duplicate of [Use slashes in sed replace](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5864146/use-slashes-in-sed-replace) — Etan Reisner, Dec 17 '15 at 12:49
[Recommended reading](http://stackoverflow.com/q/29613304/2088135) — Tom Fenech, Dec 17 '15 at 12:49
Also shell variables don' t expand in single quotes so that command as written wouldn't give that error it would just fail to do what you wanted. — Etan Reisner, Dec 17 '15 at 12:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '15 at 05:34

Consider what happens when the substitution occurs. The command becomes:

sed -i 's/<!--jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source-->/<jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source>/g' some_filename

Then, sed sees s/<!--jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</j… and thinks that you want to replace an occurrence of <!--jta-data-source>jdbc with the text FCBDataSource<, and the s command has an illegal j modifier (and other junk).

You need to pick a delimiter character that does not appear in either the pattern or the replacement text. A , will do.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 28 '15 at 05:28

0

destination='<!--jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source-->'
source='<jta-data-source>jdbc/FCBDataSource</jta-data-source>'


sed -i "s,$source,$destination,g"     
/home/rohan/R2.5LZN/UIReleasedArea/obp.ui.domain/persistence.xml

The problem was with the variable

Quotes were required

answered Dec 28 '15 at 05:28

Rohan Gala

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Right solution, poor explanation. – 200_success Dec 28 '15 at 05:35

sed not working correctly when using variables

2 Answers2