How to change specific value of XML attribute using scripting on Mac

Question

I have been tasked to write a script to change a specific value in an XML file on about 1000 Macs. Clearly this needs to be scripted, and preferably only using tools that ar

Answer 1

Using awk:

awk '/<IPv6>/,/<\/IPv6>/ {sub(/Automatic/,"__INACTIVE__")}1' xml_file > new_xml_file

Using sed: In-line editing

sed -i '/<IPv6>/,/<\/IPv6>/s/Automatic/__INACTIVE__/' xml_file

To add counts in the mix:

awk '
/<IPv6>/,/<\/IPv6>/ {sub(/Automatic/,"__INACTIVE__"); if ($0~/__/) count++}1 
END{ print FILENAME, count >>"countfile"}' xml_file> new_xml_file

The END statement will capture the Filename you ran the script on and the counts of changes in a file called countfile and will keep appending to it for your statistical analysis.