How to substitute a paragraph in file?

Question

I want to change more than a line of a file. It is a CSS file and I want to swap out a section to another.

This is a snippet from the file:

    /*** Debu         


        

Answer 1

This might work for you to:

cat <<\EOF > new_para.txt
MImAbstractKeyAreaStyle.Landscape
    /*** Label Setttings ***
    label-margin-top: 6.0mm;
    label-margin-left-with-secondary: +1;
    secondary-label-separation: 2;
    ...
}
EOF
> MImAbstractKeyAreaStyle.Landscape
>     /*** Label Setttings ***
>     label-margin-top: 6.0mm;
>     label-margin-left-with-secondary: +1;
>     secondary-label-separation: 2;
>     ...
> }
sed -i -e '/aStyle.Landscape {/,/}/{/}/r new_para.txt' -e ';d}' file.css

If the replacement paragraph is of the same length and your using GNU sed, this would work to:

sed -i -e '/aStyle.Landscape {/,/}/{R new_para.txt' -e ';d}' file.css

N.B. The last method only works for a single replacement, unless each paragraph to be replaced (in order) is in the new_para.txt file. This does give the user a chance to tailor each replacement paragraph, a subtle but powerful difference.

EDIT:

To achieve the same result without an intermediate file:

cat <<\EOF | sed -i -e '/aStyle.Landscape {/,/}/{/}/r /dev/stdin ' -e ';d}' file.css
MImAbstractKeyAreaStyle.Landscape
    /*** Label Setttings ***
    label-margin-top: 6.0mm;
    label-margin-left-with-secondary: +1;
    secondary-label-separation: 2;
    ...
}
EOF