CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sedescaping
Sandeep
Sandeep

Reputation: 1401

sed: backslash-apostrophe pattern replacement

I have a need to globally replace the pattern \' with \ ' (\[space]') in a file.

I am trying the following sed command:

sed 's/\\\'/\\ \'/g' »In-file« > »Out-file«

but I am getting the following error:

sed: -e expression #1, char 7: unterminated `s' command

What is the right way to invoke sed in this case?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 96

Answers (1)

potong
potong

Reputation: 58371

This might work for you (GNU sed):

sed 's/\\'\''/\\ '\''/g' fileIn > fileOut

Or:

sed "s/\\\'/\\\ '/g" fileIn > fileOut

The first solution punches a hole into the shell and retrieves a quoted single quote, whereas the second surrounds the sed script by double quotes. In both cases back slashes need to be quoted by a back slash.

Upvotes: 4

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