WEB-NES-BAY

This is a script I use whenever I need to do search and replace in a bunch of files. It was meant as a quick hack, but since I does exactly what I need, I continue to use it (always make a backup of the original files in case something goes wrong).

 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 #
 # More scripts and tips can be found at
 # http://www.edlin.org/
 #
 # Search and replace in several files
 #
 # I throw this file in my ~/bin/
 # Edit the variables $search, $replace and perhaps you want to change the globbing
 # then I jump to the directory with the files and just execute msr.pl (make sure that ~/bin is in your $PATH)

 use strict;

 my @infiles = glob("*.html");

 my $search ='dilbert';
 my $replace ='wally';

 # Here we go.........

 foreach my $file (@infiles){
   print "Processing $file\n";
   open(FH,$file) || die "Cannot load $file";
   my @lines=<FH>;
   close(FH);
   my $match=0;
   foreach my $line (@lines){
     if($line =~ s/$search/$replace/g){
       $match=1;
     }
   }

   if($match){
     print "...Saving $file\n";
     open(FS,">$file") || die "Cannot save $file";
     print FS @lines;
     close(FS);
   }
 }

output

when hacking some scripts it is useful to use $0 when printing out stuff, that way you can figure out which scripts that generate the output if you end up having scripts that use others scripts etc.

 print "$0: Some output from script $0\n";

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