help with search and replace

[ew6014]

hi guys...

i have multiple php files with some comments. i want to remove the comment automatically using grep or find or some other built in linux command. the comment is like this

* this is an example of a line


how can i use the command line to automatically find the above line with starts with * and remove the entire line automatically? i know what the exact line to remove is, so please help me with the command i need to type. please take note that the starting character starts with a blank space and then the aterick character followed by the line to be removed

please help me guys... im lost

[Irithori]

Something like this should do it:

find <PHP_DIRECTORY> -type f -iname "*\.php" -exec sed  '/^\([[:blank:]]\)\* this is an example of the line/d' {} \;

This will *not yet* change any files, but just output a concatination of all php files with the mentioned line removed.
After you verified the correct output, you can add the -i flag to sed for in-place editing.

Note:
The sed will look for exactly *one* space/tab, followed by "* this is an example of the line".
But it easy to adjust to e.g. multipe spaces or none at all or optional.

That said:

 *

is not a comment in php, it is rather (for a comment block)

/*
.
.
*/

But maybe the "body" of your comments have space + asteriks