regexsedsubstitution

sed error: "invalid reference \1 on `s' command's RHS"

I run several substitution commands as the core of a colorize script for maven. One of the sed commands uses a regular expression which works fine in the shell as discussed here. The current (not working) implementation can be found here.

When I include one of the variants of the command into the script different behavior occurs:

Variant 1:

$ sed -re "s/([a-zA-Z0-9./\\ :-]+)/\1/g"

Adapted to the script:

-re "s/WARNING: ([a-zA-Z0-9./\\ :-]+)/${warn}WARNING: \1${c_end}/g" \

Error: The shell outputs the same information as if I would type $ sed. Strange!?

Variant 2:

$ sed -e "s/\([a-zA-Z0-9./\\ :-]\+\)/\1/g"

Adapted to the script:

-e "s/WARNING: \([a-zA-Z0-9./\\ :-]\+\)/${warn}WARNING: \1${c_end}/g" \

Error:

sed: -e expression #7, char 59: invalid reference \1 on `s' command's RHS

Solution

  • Don't you need to actually capture for that to work? i.e. for variant #2:

    -r -e "s/WARNING: (\([a-zA-Z0-9./\\ :-]\+\))/${warn}WARNING: \1${c_end}/g" \

    (Note: untested)

    Without the -r argument back-references (like \1) won't work unless each parenthesis is escaped with a \ character.

    With -r, argument back-references (like \1) won't work unless the parenthesis are NOT escaped.