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stackbiz
Asked: 2022-12-28 03:32:27 +0800 CST

How to use "sed" for replacing xml tag in multiple lines xml content on bash

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I want to use sed to replace the XML tag on bash.

Here is the example xml content for testing:

<xml-content>
<validation>
<timeout>2880</timeout>
<subject>example</subject>
<required>true</required>
</validation>
</xml-content>

I want to replace the tag validation:

<validation>
<timeout>2880</timeout>
<subject>example</subject>
<required>true</required>
</validation>

with the new tag other-tag:

<other-tag>
<hello/>
<more>false</more>
</other-tag>

Here is the final expected result:

<xml-content>
<other-tag>
<hello/>
<more>false</more>
</other-tag>
</xml-content>

How to do it with a single command line sed?

command-line

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    With sed you can select all lines in a file between two patterns(including the two lines containing PAT1 and PAT2) and replace them like so:

    sed '/PAT1/,/PAT2/c \REPLACEMENT' file

    REPLACEMENT is text, which has each embedded newline preceded by a backslash.

    Notice that if PAT1 or PAT2 contain foreword slashes / then either each one of them must be escaped with a backslash \/ or the delimiter must be changed to something other than / and in which case you need to escape the first of each delimiter sequence when the c \ command or any other sed command is used e.g. you can change the delimiter to _ like so:

    sed '\_PAT1_,\_PAT2_c \REPLACEMENT' file

    So you can do:

    sed '/<validation>/,/<\/validation>/c \<other-tag>\n<hello/>\n<more>false</more>\n</other-tag>' file

    to edit this:

    <xml-content>
<validation>
<timeout>2880</timeout>
<subject>example</subject>
<required>true</required>
</validation>
</xml-content>

    to this:

    <xml-content>
<other-tag>
<hello/>
<more>false</more>
</other-tag>
</xml-content>

    Notice that the seds option -i is needed if you want to edit the original file in place ... Test without it first then use it with a backup suffix e.g. -i.back to save a backup copy of the original file with .back extension i.e. file.back like so:

    sed -i.back '/PAT1/,/PAT2/c \REPLACEMENT' file

    Notice as well that there are tools made especially to edit XML files that you can use to update,delete or insert XML elements ... See How do I replace multiple fields in multiple XML files? as an example ... Those tools however might require a rather more complex command script than what is required forsed in some use cases like yours ... I understand why you asked for a sed solution and would myself prefer sed as well over specialized XML tools for such task ... Plus sed would be more portable of course.

    • 2