Question

Here is my code. I simply want to copy some files and replace a line in my Makefile. The parameter $1 is just the name of my new .tex file.

#!/bin/bash                                
pwd="./"                                   
tex=".tex"                                 
pwd=$1$tex                                 
cp ~/TeX/matt.sty .                        
cp ~/TeX/mon.tex $pwd                      
cp ~/TeX/Makefile .                        

sed="sed 's/mon.tex/"$1$tex"/g' Makefile > Makefile"           
$sed

I’ve the following error : sed: 1: "'s/mon.tex/salut.tex/g'": invalid command code '

ps: i’m using sed on Mac OS X. (so it’s bsd sed)

Answer 1

The first argument to sed is literally 's/mon.tex/"$1$tex"/g' (with single quotes). obviously sed cannot parse that as a command.

Removing the single quotes would solve that problem but redirection (>) still won’t work.

Just run the sed command directly (what’s the point of the $sed variable? i don’t get it)

Note: to modify a file with sed, use sed -i. Redirecting to the same file you are processing won’t work.