Unterminated address regex error in bash script

Question

I want to edit the sshd_config file using bash script. However, I keep getting an error. I would appreciate any help given.

This is my script:

if ! grep "IgnoreRhosts" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"; then
    sed -i /etc/ssh/sshd_config -e '/# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files/a IgnoreRhosts yes'
    printf "\e[32m IGNORERHOSTS YES ADDED\e[0m\n"
elif grep "#IgnoreRhosts yes" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"; then
    sed -i 's/^#IgnoreRhosts yes/IgnoreRhosts yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    printf "\e[32mSUCCESSFULLY CHANGED\e[0m\n"
else
    printf "\e[32mNO CHANGES NEEDED\e[0m\n"
fi

This is the error I got:

sed: -e expression #1, char 7: unterminated address regex

Script error line:

 sed -i /etc/ssh/sshd_config -e '/# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files/a IgnoreRhosts yes'

`'/# Don't ...` the second quote closes the first one ; you will want to escape inner quotes (`\'`) — Aaron, Jul 24 '17 at 08:49
Try `sed -i -e '/# Don'\''t read the user'\''s ~\/.rhosts and ~\/.shosts files/a IgnoreRhosts yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config` — SLePort, Jul 24 '17 at 08:51

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 24 '17 at 09:19

This one should work:

sed -i /etc/ssh/sshd_config -e "\|# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files|a IgnoreRhosts yes"

Explanation: In this script I'm using | as a delimiter to make it more readable. This delimiter is defined by first \ (more info here)

Then, I'm using double quotes instead of single quotes to avoid escaping apostrophes in words Don't and user's

Unterminated address regex error in bash script

1 Answers1