Question

How do I edit a file in a single sed command? Currently, I have to manually stream the edited content into a new file and then rename the new file to the original file name.

I tried sed -i, but my Solaris system said that -i is an illegal option. Is there a different way?

Answer 1

The -i option streams the edited content into a new file and then renames it behind the scenes, anyway.

Example:

sed -i 's/STRING_TO_REPLACE/STRING_TO_REPLACE_IT/g' filename

while on macOS you need:

sed -i '' 's/STRING_TO_REPLACE/STRING_TO_REPLACE_IT/g' filename