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From: gwc@root.co.uk (Geoff Clare)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: sed 's/foobar/$string/g'.... can't do this?
Keywords: sed
Message-ID: <2586@root44.co.uk>
Date: 28 Jan 91 13:27:37 GMT
References: <1991Jan17.003856.469@unicorn.cc.wwu.edu> <135@edi386.UUCP> <1991Jan21.124531.27867@siesoft.co.uk> <7ejp01gY0c.900@amdahl.uts.a <1064@mwtech.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: UniSoft Ltd., London, England
Lines: 22

In <1064@mwtech.UUCP> martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes:

>	sed 's/foobar/'"$string"'/g'

>BTW: There's no simple way to stop sed from complaining when the variable
>`string' contains a slash, except if you know that it does contain a slash
>and use some other seperator in the s-commando.

Yes there is.  Simply create a copy of $string with '/' changed to '\/'.
While you're at it, you can treat '&' and '\' the same way to prevent
sed from interpreting '&', '\1', etc. if they happen to occur in $string.

Xstring=`sed 's/[\/&\\]/\\&/g' <<!
$string
!
`
sed 's/foobar/'"$Xstring"'/g'


-- 
Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>  (Dumb American mailers: ...!uunet!root.co.uk!gwc)
UniSoft Limited, London, England.   Tel: +44 71 729 3773   Fax: +44 71 729 3273