Question

I want to replace %foo% (found in file test) with a string containing every possible character. Because of the missing character limitation, the following is not possible (executed in BASHv4):

echo %foo% > test
replacement="//this//is//a//test"
ed -s test <<< "g/%foo%/s/%foo%/$replacement"

Any idea how to replace %foo% with every possible text?

Answer 1

With command r it is possible to load text from another file, so the following is a valid solution:

• store replacement to another file
• open file with ed
• move pointer to location
• delete line (fake replace follows)
• load text from file with r FILE
• write and quit