grep command and then edit how ?

[keevill]

Is there a way to use the grep command in conjunction with an editor such as nano or vi so that I can remove the commented out lines from a conf file and then proceed to edit it ?
I can use grep -v "^#^" squid.conf (example ) which gives me a nicely tidy conf file but I can't edit it.
Can this command be used with nano or ??
-keevill-

[countach74]

Hmm, interesting idea. Never thought of that. Curious to see if anyone knows how to do this.

[ptkobe]

interesting, indeed.

If you really don't want the the comments you may replace the conf file with the grep output. Then edit it. (your command as an extra ^)

# cp squid.conf squid.conf.bak
# grep -v "^#" squid.conf > squid.conf
# nano squid.conf

I think you cant expect to edit without (without seeing?) the comments and save it back with the comments, right? Then again, what do I know?

Regards
Luis

[Irithori]

sed -i /^#/d squid.conf

[keevill]

sed -i /^#/d squid.conf

I'm not sure that I follow this command ..when in root I type @ terminal
sudo sed -i /^#/d squid.conf
I get absolutely nothing ..should an editor open up ??
-keevill-

[Irithori]

sed is a stream editor.
The idea is, that it is *not* interactive, ie: no gui will be shown. In fact: sed has none.
It reacts to commands and regular expressions.

sed -i /^#/d squid.conf

sed is called to work on a file squid.conf.
/^#/ match lines, that begin with a #
and delete them /d
-i work in-place. That means: modify squid.conf instead of just printing the output to stdout.

[keevill]

sed is a stream editor.
The idea is, that it is *not* interactive, ie: no gui will be shown. In fact: sed has none.
It reacts to commands and regular expressions.

sed -i /^#/d squid.conf

sed is called to work on a file squid.conf.
/^#/ match lines, that begin with a #
and delete them /d
-i work in-place. That means: modify squid.conf instead of just printing the output to stdout.

Excellent command and explanation !!
Many thx,
-keevill-