Global search and replace using Vi

Fri, Apr 28, 2006

System Administration

to replace all instances of - say - 127.0.0.1 with 10.0.0.1 in a file then using vi you can do:

[code]:%s/127\.0\.0\.1/10\.0\.0\.1/g[/code]

if you mess it up then press u for undo. Of course if it’s an important file then back it up first.

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Bealers - who has written 350 posts on Darren Beale.

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3 Comments For This Post

Mike Says:
October 17th, 2007 at 3:38 pm

Do you think maybe you could have used a simpler example without all of the escapes for the .’s ? how about this? Replace all instances of overcomplicated in a file:

%s/overcomplicated/simple/g

Bealers Says:
October 17th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

*shrug* I was simply illustrating the task that I was doing at that moment.

Carlos Says:
January 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Your example is actually a good one. The fact is that a very common use for global search/replace in vii is to replace ip addresses in .conf files. This example perfectly illustrates doing just that, and is unlikely to confuse anyone with even some experience with posix type os.

Darren Beale