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From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: A question on .exrc while using vi
Keywords: exrc vi
Message-ID: <q5LoT4w163w@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Date: 5 Dec 90 02:03:37 GMT
References: <5315@graphite20.UUCP>
Organization: The Programmers' Pit Stop, +1 313 665 2832
Lines: 27

joshi@motcid.UUCP (Abhay B. Joshi) writes:
> I have a simple text-file containing the following text (3 lines): 
> 
> 	The goal:
> 	All I am trying to do is replace the 'the's by 'an's.
> 	That's all.

Son, vi is the wrong tool for the job.

ed file <<Frobozz
1,$g/the/s//an/g
w
q
Frobozz

or

sed 's/the/an/g' file >file.new

(You could use awk to do it, too, but awk is really the wrong tool for
the job here.  The nice thing about Unix is that it has so many
different tools to choose from.)

--
Marc Unangst               |
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us  | "Bus error: passengers dumped"
...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |