Use sed to change string1 to string2 in same file

I wanted to change "/artscrafts/" to "/blog/" in all popup image files (these are not stored in the MT database so search-and-replace inside the Movable Type 4.01 administrative interface doesn't work for those files). The file for each popup image is stored in the same directory as the popup image.

The following worked for me, but there is no guarantee that it will work for you. I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter. Backup all files first.

To change a string of characters to a different string of characters in multiple files:

1. At a Unix prompt, cd to directory where the files to be modified are located
2. Type on one line: for f in *php; do sed 's/string1/string2/g' $f > $f.new && mv $f.new $f; done

Line 2 means: For every file ending with php, replace string1 with string2 and save the result into a new file, then move the new file over the original file.

For each slash in the string, I needed to use \ in front of it, as follows:

for f in *php; do sed 's/\/artscrafts\//\/blog\//g' $f > $f.new && mv $f.new $f; done

Multiple lines can also be used at a Unix prompt as follows:

for f in *php
do
sed 's/string1/string2/g' $f > $f.new &&
mv $f.new $f
done

Based on information in a thread at dBforums. Note: That code uses the Unix find command to locate files which could be in subdirectories. Back up all files and learn about the find command before using.

for fname in $(find . -name "*" -print)
do
sed '/word/s/word/new_word/g' ${fname} > ${fname}.new &&
mv ${fname}.new ${fname}
done