sed replace xml tag

Question

I want to replace value inside a tag in an xml file using sed.

 xxxx-SS 

I want to replace xxxx-SS with some she

Answer 1

You may try to use awk, it would more simple to achieve what you desire,

$ cp test.xml test_orig.xml

$ awk '/<version> xxxx-SS <\/version>/{gsub(/<version> xxxx-SS <\/version>/,"<version> $ver </version>",$0)}1' test_orig.xml > test.xml
$ cat test.xml
...
<version> $ver </version>
...

$ rm test_orig.xml

The command would substitute xxxx-SS to test (modify the var value to what you want)

Answer 2

Using xml/html parsers is the right way to manipulate xml/html documents. Don't use sed/awk tools for such cases.

xmlstarlet solution:

xmlstarlet ed -u "//version[1]" -v $ver test.xml

• ed - edit mode

• -u - update action

• //version[1] - xpath expression to select the first version tag

• -v $ver - the new value for selected node