Question

I use sed to create files from template files. I can’t figure out, using man sed, why it does not change all the matched strings.

If my file (template_file.txt) contains:

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/init.d/%SCRIPT_NAME% - Startup script for play %SCRIPT_NAME% engine
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
[...]
EOF

Using :

sed -e "s;%SCRIPT_NAME%;script_test_name;" template_file.txt > script_test_name

Produces (script_test_name) :

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/init.d/script_test_name - Startup script for play %SCRIPT_NAME% engine
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
[...]
EOF

I see that for lines which have 2 times the string to replace, only the first one is replaced.

Can you give me a hint how to fix it?

Answer 1

The s command changes only the first occurrence unless you add the g (global) modifier to it.

sed -e "s;%SCRIPT_NAME%;script_test_name;g" template_file.txt > script_test_name