[lboogie]

I am trying to write script that search for a string in a given file, if the string is found the script has to make a substitution and backup file, if string is not found no change is to be made. I am banging my head against the wall. Please Help!!!

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by lboogie

I am trying to write script that search for a string in a given file, if the string is found the script has to make a substitution and backup file, if string is not found no change is to be made. I am banging my head against the wall. Please Help!!!

Hi lboogie,

Welcome to TSG!

Look up the man page for egrep: man egrep

Then use the egrep command to find the string in your file, and testing the return value of the egrep command, you can determine if the string was found or not and do the appropriate thing using the if then else construct in your script.

Now, if you have to start in a particular directory structure and decend and look in all of the files in subordinate directories, then look at the man page for the "find" command: man find

-- Tom

[Headrush]

Originally Posted by lboogie

I am trying to write script that search for a string in a given file, if the string is found the script has to make a substitution and backup file, if string is not found no change is to be made. I am banging my head against the wall. Please Help!!!

Check out sed instead.

Its as simple as something like this: sed 's/string/newstring/g' originalfile.txt > newfile.txt

This will create a new file even if no changes are made but its trivia to deleted if empty.