Error when using 'sed' with 'find' command on OS X: "invalid command code ."
BashMacosSedFindBash Problem Overview
Being forced to use CVS for a current client and the address changed for the remote repo. The only way I can find to change the remote address in my local code is a recursive search and replace.
However, with the sed command I'd expect to work:
find ./ -type f -exec sed -i "s/192.168.20.1/new.domain.com/" {} \;
I get an error for every file:
sed: 1: ".//file/path ...": invalid command code .
I've tried to escape the periods in the sed match/replacement but that doesn't solve anything.
Bash Solutions
Solution 1 - Bash
If you are on a OS X, this probably has nothing to do with the sed command. On the OSX version of sed, the -i option expects an extension argument so your command is actually parsed as the extension argument and the file path is interpreted as the command code.
Try adding the -e argument explicitly and giving '' as argument to -i:
find ./ -type f -exec sed -i '' -e "s/192.168.20.1/new.domain.com/" {} \;
See this.
Solution 2 - Bash
You simply forgot to supply an argument to -i. Just change -i to -i ''.
Of course that means you don't want your files to be backed up; otherwise supply your extension of choice, like -i .bak.
Solution 3 - Bash
On OS X nothing helps poor builtin sed to become adequate. The solution is:
brew install gnu-sed
And then use gsed instead of sed, which will just work as expected.
Solution 4 - Bash
Simply add an extension to the -i flag. This basically creates a backup file with the original file.
sed -i.bakup 's/linenumber/number/' ~/.vimrc
sed will execute without the error
Solution 5 - Bash
Probably your new domain contain / ? If so, try using separator other than / in sed, e.g. #, , etc.
find ./ -type f -exec sed -i 's#192.168.20.1#new.domain.com#' {} \;
It would also be good to enclose s/// in single quote rather than double quote to avoid variable substitution or any other unexpected behaviour
Solution 6 - Bash
It is not the case for the OP but it was for me and could help someone else.
If you are using ' to enclose regex, double check the ' characters. I was copying and pasting the script and OSX was replacing ' by ’ in bash.