Question

I’ve tried this:

PATH="/user/dj/a/mydir"
PATH_FORMAT=`echo "${PATH}" | sed 's/\//\\\//'`

but it only replace the first “/”.
I want the resulting PATH_FORMAT value to be:

"\/user\/dj\/a\/mydir"

How can I do that?

Answer 1

Add a g flag to your substitute command:

echo "${PATH}" | sed 's/\//\\//g'

Or more readable, as per Jonathan Wakely in the comments:

echo "${PATH}" | sed 's:/:\\/:g'

To achieve what you describe in your question, you need one more backslash:

echo /user/dj/a/mydir | sed 's:/:\\\/:g'

Output:

\/user\/dj\/a\/mydir