How to insert a line in a file between two blocks of known lines (if not already inserted previously), using bash?

Question

I wrote a bash script which can modify php.ini according to my needs.
Now I have to introduce a new change, and I cannot find a clear solution to it.

I need to

Answer 1

This might work for you:

 sed '/^; Dynamic Extensions ;$/,/^; Module Settings ;$/{H;//{x;/extension="memcache.so"/{p;d};/;;;\n/{s//&extension="memcache.so"\n/p}};d}' file

This will insert extension="memcache.so" between ; Dynamic Extensions ; and ; Module Settings ; unless extension="memcache.so" is already present.

Answer 2

You can use the following sed script:

/^;\+$/{
N
/^;\+\n; Module Settings ;$/i extension="memcache.so"
}

Basically it matches these lines:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Module Settings ;

and inserts before them the desired string (extension="memcache.so")

Answer 3

Get the line number using grep -n:

line=$(cat php.ini | grep -n 'Module Settings' | grep -o '^[0-9]*')

Calculate the line to insert the text to:

line=$((line - 3))

Insert it using sed or awk. Examples to insert "newline" on line 45:

sed '45i\newline' file
awk 'NR==45{print "newline"}1'