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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-16T13:46:13+00:00

I am stumped on why this sed command would not be working: sed ‘s/<script

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I am stumped on why this sed command would not be working:

sed 's/<script id="live-reload"[\s\S]*?<\/script>/test/g' www_public/index.html > www_public/index.html.temp

It should replace the live-reload script tag of the following HTML with ‘test’:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if lt IE 7]>      <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8 lt-ie7"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 7]>         <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 8]>         <html class="no-js lt-ie9"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js"> <!--<![endif]-->
    <head>

        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
        <title>AssembleJS</title>
        <meta name="description" content="">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">

        <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/css/main.css">

    </head>

    <body>

        <script id="require-lib" data-main="src/config" src="src/libs/require.js"></script>

        <script id="live-reload">document.write('<script src="http://' + (location.host || 'localhost').split(':')[0] + ':35729/livereload.js?snipver=1"></' + 'script>')</script>

        <script id="test"> bla bla bla </script>

    </body>

</html>

Here’s the regex working:

http://regexr.com?339ga

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You need to use -r for ? as it’s extended regex: 

    $ sed -r 's/<script id="live-reload".*?<\/script>/test/g' file

    or escape it:

    $ sed 's/<script id="live-reload".*\?<\/script>/test/g' file

    Output:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if lt IE 7]>      <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8 lt-ie7"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 7]>         <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if IE 8]>         <html class="no-js lt-ie9"> <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js"> <!--<![endif]-->
    <head>

        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
        <title>AssembleJS</title>
        <meta name="description" content="">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">

        <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/css/main.css">

    </head>

    <body>

        <script id="require-lib" data-main="src/config" src="src/libs/require.js"></script>

        test

        <script id="test"> bla bla bla </script>

    </body>

</html>

    Notes:

    • Also changed [\s\S]*? to .*? as they’re complimentary groups.

    • The g flag is only necessary for multiple matches on a single line.

    • If you’re running Mac the -r flag is -E so check with sed
      --help       for the extended regex option.

    • Obligatory don’t parse [x]html with regex warning, using a parser.

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