SED : cant replace line in file, sed: -e expression #1, char 32: unknown option to `s'

Question

i am trying to replace a single line in an existing file as

sed -i -e 's/# elasticsearch.url: "http://localhost:9200"/elasticsearch.url: "http://myOwnHost:9200"/g' config/kibana.yml

but i get an error

sed: -e expression #1, char 32: unknown option to `s'

i can figure out how and what to escape here. I am quite new to sed.

Does this answer your question? [How to pass a variable containing slashes to sed](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27787536/how-to-pass-a-variable-containing-slashes-to-sed) — tripleee, Sep 25 '20 at 09:25

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 22 '16 at 14:10

2

In your sed statement the / character is used a separator. e.g. s/search/replace/g. Since you have /s in your string it is messing things up. While / is usually used as the separator, you can use other characters. In your case I would use a pipe | e.g. s|search|replace|g. Alternatively you can use / and escape the slashes in your strings: \/, but that gets messy.

answered Apr 22 '16 at 14:10

Dan

10,614
5
24
35

do i need to escape `#`? – AbtPst Apr 22 '16 at 14:11
1

Nope, unless you decide to use `#` as your separator, which is another common alternative. – Dan Apr 22 '16 at 14:12

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 22 '16 at 14:18

0

You have to escape the forward slash characters with backslashes!

sed -i -e 's/# elasticsearch.url: "http:\/\/localhost:9200"/elasticsearch.url: "http:\/\/myOwnHost:9200"/g' config/kibana.yml

answered Apr 22 '16 at 14:18

Bill Butler

479
3
16

SED : cant replace line in file, sed: -e expression #1, char 32: unknown option to `s'

2 Answers2