Replace delimited block of text in file with the contents of another file

Question

I need to write a simple script to replace a block of text in a configuration file with the contents of another file.

Let\'s assume with have the following simplifie

Answer 1

How about this little snippet I created:

sed -n \
  -e "1,/<\!-- BEGIN realm -->/ p" \
  -e"/<\!-- END realm -->/,$ p" \
  -e "/<\!-- BEGIN realm -->/ r realm.xml" \
  server.xml

The first commands prints the lines up to <!- BEGIN realm --> the second command prints the line starting at <!-- END realm --> and the third commands append the text in the file 'realm.xml'. If only I could simplify the removing of the lines between <!- BEGIN realm --> and <!-- END realm --> without removing the marker lines it would as simple as it gets. And it can be done inplace with sed!!!

Answer 2

I ran into this same need (hence finding this question). After messing around with sed and awk for far too long, I eventually realised there's nothing wrong with using a modern, readable, understandable, widely available language like Python:

    python <<EOF
    import os, sys, re
    fname = 'server.xml'
    os.rename(fname, fname + '.orig')
    with open(fname + '.orig', 'r') as fin, open(fname, 'w') as fout:
        data = fin.read()

        data = re.sub(r'(<!-- BEGIN realm -->).*?(<!-- END realm -->)', 
          r'\1\n' +
          'insert whatever you want here\n' + 
          r'\2\n', data, flags=re.DOTALL)
        fout.write(data)
    EOF

I think sed and awk have had their day. They were useful once upon a time, but very few people can read or write either without documentary assistance these days.

(Source: the internet)

Answer 3

you can use awk

awk 'FNR==NR{ _[++d]=$0;next}
/BEGIN realm/{
  print
  for(i=1;i<=d;i++){ print _[i] }
  f=1;next
}
/END realm/{f=0}!f' realm.xml server.xml > temp && mv temp server.xml

realm.xml is passed to awk as the first file. FNR==NR means getting the records of the first file passed in and store to variable _. awk will process the next file once FNR!=NR. if awk finds /BEGIN realm/, print the BEGIN realm line, then print what is stored in _. By setting a flag (f) to 1, the rest of the lines after BEGIN realm will not be printed until /END realm/ is detected.

Answer 4

Give this a try:

sed -i -ne '/<!-- BEGIN realm -->/ {p; r realm.xml' -e ':a; n; /<!-- END realm -->/ {p; b}; ba}; p' server.xml

Answer 5

You may also use the ed command (cf. http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/howto/edit-ed ):

cat <<-'EOF' | sed -e 's/^ *//' -e 's/ *$//' | ed -s server.xml
   H
   /BEGIN realm/i
   .
   /BEGIN realm/+1,/END realm/-1d
   .-1r realm.xml
   wq
EOF

Answer 6

I was unable to get Dennis solution easily working on OS X (its BSD sed is slightly different). I found this other solution that I was able to make work on both Linux and OS X (I have a mixed environment). The original version on superuser.com works only on Linux, here I fixed it:

lead='^<!-- BEGIN realm -->$'
tail='^<!-- END realm -->'
sed  -e '/'"$lead"'/,/'"$tail"'/{ /'"$lead"'/{p; r realm.xml' -e' }; /'"$tail"'/p; d;} '  server.xml

Here a version of Dennis code that works also on OS X (using multiple lines):

sed -ne '/'"$lead"'/ {
 p
 r realm.xml
 :a
 n 
 /'"$tail"'/ {
  p
  b
 } 
 ba
 }
p' server.xml

Both these codes print the output on stdout. Use redirection or, to substitute the file inline, add the option '-i' (on linux) or '-i ""' (on BSD/OS X).