Question

I’d like to insert a line before a pattern with sed:
– Insert ‘XmlRootElement(name=”ABC”)’ before “public class”

This is the script:

'/public class/i\@XmlRootElement(name="ABC")'

However I got error when I run this:

sed -e script testfile.txt
sed: -e expression #1, char 13: Unterminated `s' command

Can anyone help me?

Thanks

Answer 1

For the sed’s I’m used to, you have to include a line break after your i\, and ‘terminate’ the insert with a blank line, i.e.

sed '/public class/i\
@XmlRootElement(name="ABC")

' file > outFile

Note, the blank line after your new inserted text.

Note, make sure you don’t get any spaces at the end of the line, after the i\.

As I realize now that you’re keeping your sed in a separate script file, the formatting constraints apply there too, just remove the '' pair surrounding the code.

And more importantly, your script is failing because you use -e for a sed script file, use

sed -f script testfile.txt

-e is used if your embedding your sed script in-line, My 1st solution above could be pre-pended with -e.

Edit Fixed references to a\ to `i\’. Doah

hope this helps.