editing txt file via scripts...

[blastman]

hey guys,

I have a large txt file that i need to add some data to. Whats the best way of doing this from the command line?

example;

txt file to edit has a section within like this;

####_customer_data

I need to search for the above string, then under neath it add the following lines;

line one {
line two data
line three data
line four data
}

I need to be careful that the script DOESN'T overwrite any existing data.

So far I've had success with;

cat txtfile_to_edit.cfg | sed "/####_customer_data/a\
cfg_dir=$webroot/customers/$1" > txtfile_to_edit.edit.cfg

but I'm struggling to get to work over multiple lines.

Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance

 

[tntcoder]

It's probably easiest to do an inline search and replace using sed.

Something like this?

#!/bin/sh

KEY_WORD='####_customer_data'

REPLACE_WITH="$KEY_WORD\n\
{\n\
line two data\n\
line three data\n\
line four data\n\
}"

sed -i "s/$KEY_WORD/$REPLACE_WITH/g" txtfile_to_edit.cfg

 

[blastman]

Thanks.

I tried your suggestion but it didn't work, so I noted the \n in your code and applied in it mine, giving me the result i was after!!

so thank you again!!