sed command with -i option failing on Mac, but works on Linux

Question

I\'ve successfully used the following sed command to search/replace text in Linux:

sed -i \'s/old_link/new_link/g\' *

However,

Answer 1

Here's how to apply environment variables to template file (no backup need).

1. Create template with {{FOO}} for later replace.

echo "Hello {{FOO}}" > foo.conf.tmpl

2. Replace {{FOO}} with FOO variable and output to new foo.conf file

FOO="world" && sed -e "s/{{FOO}}/$FOO/g" foo.conf.tmpl > foo.conf

Working both macOS 10.12.4 and Ubuntu 14.04.5

Answer 2

Had the same problem in Mac and solved it with brew:

brew install gnu-sed

and use as

gsed SED_COMMAND

you can set as well set sed as alias to gsed (if you want):

alias sed=gsed

Answer 3

Sinetris' answer is right, but I use this with find command to be more specific about what files I want to change. In general this should work (tested on osx /bin/bash):

find . -name "*.smth" -exec sed -i '' 's/text1/text2/g' {} \;

In general when using sed without find in complex projects is less efficient.

Answer 4

I believe on OS X when you use -i an extension for the backup files is required. Try:

sed -i .bak 's/hello/gbye/g' *

Using GNU sed the extension is optional.

Answer 5

If you use the -i option you need to provide an extension for your backups.

If you have:

File1.txt
File2.cfg

The command (note the lack of space between -i and '' and the -e to make it work on new versions of Mac and on GNU):

sed -i'.original' -e 's/old_link/new_link/g' *

Create 2 backup files like:

File1.txt.original
File2.cfg.original

There is no portable way to avoid making backup files because it is impossible to find a mix of sed commands that works on all cases:

• sed -i -e ... - does not work on OS X as it creates -e backups
• sed -i'' -e ... - does not work on OS X 10.6 but works on 10.9+
• sed -i '' -e ... - not working on GNU

Note Given that there isn't a sed command working on all platforms, you can try to use another command to achieve the same result.

E.g., perl -i -pe's/old_link/new_link/g' *

Answer 6

sed -ie 's/old_link/new_link/g' *

Works on both BSD & Linux with gnu sed