question of sed replace

Question

hi

i have a config file xml

<tflow name="CENTRE"
     inputDTD="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/batch/dtd/dtd-ContactCentre.dtd"
     inputFile="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/import/2010.05.02.CONTACTCENTRE.xml"
                 logPath="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/logs/"
                 rejectPath="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/rejets/"/>
            <tflow name="SKILL"
                 inputDTD="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/batch/dtd/dtd-Skill.dtd"
                 inputFile="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/import/2010.05.02.SKILLS.xml"
                 logPath="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/logs/"
                 rejectPath="/JOBS/cnav/etc/jobReporting/rejets/"/>

my shell is aim to change, by example '2010.05.02.SKILLS.xml' with 'newdate.SKILLS.xml'

currently i think of SED, i wrote:

sed 's/(import\/)(\d{4}.\d{2}.\d{2})/$1$newdate/g' myfile.xml

it doesn't work,i test the pattern with RegExr(a site) which is fine.

is it a problem of synthesis of SED? thanks.

Answer 1

Depending on your sed implementation, you may have to specify that you are using regex. What OS/version of sed are you using? You may, for example, have to use the -E argument.

Answer 2

So many regex dialects around... I think sed does not understand \d. Besides, use \1 for the bactracking, and use double quotes if $newdate is a shell variable. And try -r to use extended regex.

Try something like this

   sed -r "s/(import\/)([0-9]{4}\.[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]{2})/\1$newdate/g" myfile.xml

Answer 3

Most sed implementations don't support extended regexps by default, so you need to use basic regexps. This means you need to put backslashes before your parentheses and braces, and you can't use the \d class. You also have the syntax of backreferences wrong -- it should be \1, not $1$. So, it should look like this:

 sed 's/\(import\/\)\([0-9]\{4\}\.[0-9]\{2\}\.[0-9]\{2\}\)/\1newdate/' myfile.xml