sed command to uncomment lines of code

Question

Working on a build automation script and we're trying to take an input from a file called code.js like this:

var foo = {};

// var bar = 1;
// var fooBar = 2;
// var barFoo = 3;

And when we're done, have an output with the commented lines now uncommented with no leading spaces like this:

var foo = {};

var bar = 1;
var fooBar = 2;
var barFoo = 3;

We're trying to get the transformation saved back to code.js too.

So far we've tried this sed command, but our sed is no so good:

sed -i '' -e's/\*\//\n&/g' code.js

We tried using awk as well, but the leading space remains and it seems to work on the terminal, but not in the automation script for some reason:

awk '{sub(/\/\//,""); print}' code.js

We'd prefer to use sed, since we have a few sed inplace replacement commands working so far already. How can we do this in sed?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 17 '17 at 16:48

3

With GNU sed:

sed -i 's|^// ||' file

answered Dec 17 '17 at 16:48

Cyrus

Getting this error: `sed: 1: "code.js": unterminated substitute in regular expression` Any idea what it means and how to resolve? – myoplabo Dec 17 '17 at 17:27
Add your `sed` version to your question. – Cyrus Dec 17 '17 at 17:31
Chances are its a variant that requires a file name after `-i` (e.g. OSX sed?). – Ed Morton Dec 17 '17 at 17:58
OSX sed :( - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37639496/how-can-i-check-the-version-of-sed-in-os-x – myoplabo Dec 17 '17 at 17:59
3

Why did you tag your question with Linux then? – Ed Morton Dec 17 '17 at 18:00
> Chances are its a variant that requires a file name after -i (e.g. OSX sed?). That was it. `sed -i '' -e 's|^// ||' code.js` – myoplabo Dec 17 '17 at 18:03

1 Answers1