Question

I have been facing issues with using regex with sed.
I have a string like :

Call stack: [thread 0xac0aaa28]: | start | main main.m:37 | UIApplicationMain | GSEventRun | GSEventRunModal | CFRunLoopRunInMode | CFRunLoopRunSpecific | __CFRunLoopRun | __CFRunLoopDoSource1 | __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE1_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ | mshMIGPerform | _XCopyAttributeValue | _AXXMIGCopyAttributeValue | _copyAttributeValueCallback | -[NSObject(AXPrivCategory) accessibilityAttributeValue:] | -[UITableViewCellAccessibilityElement _accessibilityIsTableCell] | -[UITableViewCellAccessibilityElement tableViewCell] | -[UITableViewAccessibility(Accessibility) accessibilityCellForRowAtIndexPath:] | -[UITableView(UITableViewInternal) _createPreparedCellForRowAtIndexPath:] | -[UITableView(UITableViewInternal) _createPreparedCellForGlobalRow:withIndexPath:] | -[MailViewController tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:] | +[NICellFactory tableViewModel:cellForTableView:atIndexPath:withObject:] NICellFactory.m:89 | +[NICellFactory cellWithClass:tableView:object:] NICellFactory.m:67 | -[SwipableTableViewCell shouldUpdateCellWithObject:] | -[SwipableTableViewCell updateCellWithObject:] | -[ThreadCellFrontView updateCellWithObject:] | -[ThreadSummaryView updateWithNugget:] | -[JavaUtilLinkedList init] LinkedList.m:49 | -[JavaUtilLinkedList initJavaUtilLinkedList] LinkedList.m:40 | +[NSObject alloc] | +[NSObject allocWithZone:] | _objc_rootAllocWithZone | class_createInstance | calloc | malloc_zone_calloc

which has instances like main.m:37 |, LinkedList.m:95 |, NICellFactory.mm:89 | etc
i.e in text mate I can match these occurences with using the regex

[a-zA-z]+[.][m]+[:]+[0-9]+[ |]+

Now when I try to do the same thing in sed using

sed 's/\[a-zA-z]+[.][m]+[:]+[0-9][ |]+/ /g'

Sed does not seem to replace these instances.
I have tried using backlashes too
i.e

sed 's/\[a-zA-z\]+\[\.\]\[m\]+\[:\]+\[0-9\]+\[ |\]+/ /g'

Still sed does not replace such occurences.

Can someone help me understand what am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Answer 1

The backslashes you added for no good reason are the problem. Also your sed dialect may not support + repetition out of the box – try with * instead, or look for a -r or -E option in your sed manual page.