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

TOTAL_LINES=`cat server.xml | wc -l`
BEGIN_LINE=`grep -n -e '<!-- BEGIN realm -->' server.xml | cut -d : -f 1`
END_LINE=`grep -n -e '<!-- END realm -->' server.xml | cut -d : -f 1`
TAIL_LINES=$(($TOTAL_LINES-$END_LINE))

head -n $BEGIN_LINE server.xml > server2.xml
cat realm.xml > server2.xml
tail -n $TAIL_LINES server.xml > server2.xml

(OK, this does not use awk or sed... I assumed that was not an exclusive requirement :-)