Sed insert string on new line post string Linux

Question

I have been trying to use sed for the following - I am searching in a file for the below keyword -

</Remote>

And right after it, on new line, am trying to insert following -

<ScanConfig filesToTest="ABCD_*.csv" namePatternLogic="0" scanMethod="0" subdirsScanLevel="" />

I have tried standard SED -

sed -i '</Remote>/a <ScanConfig filesToTest="ABCD_*.csv" namePatternLogic="0" scanMethod="0" subdirsScanLevel="" />' somefile.txt

OR

sed -i '\#^ *</Remote> *$# a\ <ScanConfig filesToTest="ABCD_*.csv" namePatternLogic="0" scanMethod="0" subdirsScanLevel="" />' somefile.txt

Both failed with below errors -

sed: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `<'
sed: -e expression #1, char 1: unknown command: `"'

I suspect the special characters in the line I am trying to insert which has <, /> characters is confusing SED. I tried to use escape characters with /\ though it didn't quiet work out.

Can someone please help me with this? Thanks.

First of all welcome to Stack Overflow. We understand that you are excited about parsing XML with regex, but just do not do it! Tools such as sed and AWK are extremely powerful for handling text files, but when it boils down to parsing complex-structured data — such as XML, HTML, JSON, ... — they are nothing more than a sledgehammer. Yes, you can get the job done, but sometimes at a tremendous cost. For handling such delicate files, you need a bit more finesse by using a more targetted set of tools. — kvantour
– kvantour, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 12:20
Have a look at the following two answers that give you some insight how you could attack this problem using xmlstarlet. (answer 1 and answer 2). Note, these answers are not the solution to your problem but show a methodology. — kvantour
– kvantour, Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 12:22

JUSHJUSH · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-31 11:29:26Z

1

This one should work

sed  -i '/<\/Remote>/a <ScanConfig filesToTest="ABCD_*.csv" namePatternLogic="0" scanMethod="0" subdirsScanLevel="" />' file.txt

In your first script you forgot to add "/" in the beggining of sed expression.

Also you have to use "\/" to match "/" if you're using it as sed delimiter.

edited Jul 31, 2018 at 11:29

answered Jul 31, 2018 at 9:46

JUSHJUSH

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4 Comments

Ed Morton Over a year ago

so don't use / as the sed delimiter, use some other char, e.g. :</Remote>:a ...

JUSHJUSH Over a year ago

You have to add "\" if you're using other delimiter than / sed '\:</Remote>:a ...'

Ed Morton Over a year ago

I feel like that's better than having to escape characters within the regexp you're trying to match.

Linux Boot Traveller Over a year ago

Thanks Guys, solution suggested by JUSHJUSH worked perfectly! Thanks once again.

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