command for replacing text?

[MunkyJuce69]

is there a way to replace text strings in a file from the command line (no scripts or programming)?

I want to replace this line in /etc/inittab

id:5:initdefault:

with

id:3:initdefault:

(replace 5 with 3)


im making a test and trying to make setup into a single multipart command. what would the command line be?

thx

[Cabhan]

The sed utility can do pattern matching and replacement. So for your particular example:

sed -e 's/id:5:initdefault/id:3:initdefault/' /etc/inittab

This would print the modified file to the terminal. You could redirect that into a temp file and replace the original with it. Or you could use the '-i' option to backup the existing copy and automatically make the change. Check the man page for more details.

sed uses a technique called regular expressions to match patterns in the file. You can do very powerful things with it: find an online resource on regular expressions for more info.

[MunkyJuce69]

thank you, worked perfectly.