pathsedcsh

How to replace a path with another path in sed?

I have a csh script (although I can change languages if it has any relevance) where I have to:

sed s/AAA/BBB/ file

The problem is that AAA and BBB are paths, and so contain '/'. AAA is fixed, so I can say:

sed s/\\\/A\\\/A\\\A/BBB/ file

However, BBB is based on variables, including $PWD. How do I escape the '/' in $PWD?

OR is there some other way I should be doing this entirely?

Solution

  • sed can use any separator instead of / in the s command. Just use something that is not encountered in your paths:

    s+AAA+BBB+

    and so on.

    Alternatively (and if you don't want to guess), you can pre-process your path with sed to escape the slashes:

    pwdesc=$(echo $PWD | sed 's_/_\\/_g')

    and then do what you need with $pwdesc.