In March 2006, Neptune Web developed a simple command-line, Open Source, search and replace utility for performing searching against free-form HTML files.
We knew it would be useful to others, so we wrote a magazine article about it. The article appeared in Sysadmin Magazine, as Better Find and Replace on HTML Content.The latest version of the script can be found here: dwreplace.pl.
Dwreplace isn't something that we need to change much. It does the job and doesn't require much maintenance. However, there have been a few updates since the article appeared.
We have added the --null option, which allows you to run find in conjunction with dwreplace. e.g.
find . -print0 | dwreplace --rfile=blah.rfile --null
However, you don't need to null terminated filenames to stdin (I prefer this method instead, because its simpler). You can also use regular newline terminated filenames like this:
e.g. find . -print | dwreplace --ffile=blah.rfile
This works just like "zip" using the -@ option. (-@ is one of my favorite options to zip which you should know about if you don't already)
For example:
# make a backup, reading from newline terminated lines
find . | zip -@ backup.zip
# then list the files and replace the HTML text.
zip -l | dwreplace --ffile=blah.rfile
There is also a new --m option, which shows matches only, do not show unmatched files.Thanks for Joseph Lamoree for that contribution.
The script is a small contribution to Open Source, but it proves to be a useful utility which people use again and again. Last year, I was surprised to have someone send me a free T-shirt. The person ran a bamboo clothing store e-commerce site, and the script saved him a few hours.
If you have any contributions, questions or comments (or free t-shirts) please leave below, or email me at charles dot dalsass at neptuneweb.com.
Charlie