sed - Commenting a line matching a specific string AND that is not already commented out
RegexSedRegex Problem Overview
I have the following test file
AAA
BBB
CCC
Using the following sed I can comment out the BBB line.
# sed -e '/BBB/s/^/#/g' -i file
I'd like to only comment out the line if it does not already has a # at the begining.
# sed -e '/^#/! /BBB/s/^/#/g' file
sed: -e expression #1, char 7: unknown command: `/'
Any ideas how I can achieve this?
Regex Solutions
Solution 1 - Regex
Assuming you don't have any lines with multiple #s this would work:
sed -e '/BBB/ s/^#*/#/' -i file
Note: you don't need /g since you are doing at most one substitution per line.
Solution 2 - Regex
I find this solution to work the best.
sed -i '/^[^#]/ s/\(^.*BBB.*$\)/#\ \1/' file
It doesn't matter how many "#" symbols there are, it will never add another one. If the pattern you're searching for does not include a "#" it will add it to the beginning of the line, and it will also add a trailing space.
If you don't want a trailing space
sed -i '/^[^#]/ s/\(^.*BBB.*$\)/#\1/' file
Solution 3 - Regex
Another solution with the & special character which references the whole matched portion of the pattern space. It's a bit simpler/cleaner than capturing and referencing a regexp group.
sed -i 's/^[^#]*BBB/#&/' file
Solution 4 - Regex
Assuming the BBB is at the beginning of a line, I ended up using an even simpler expression:
sed -e '/^BBB/s/^/#/' -i file
One more note for the future me. Do not overlook the -i. Because this won't work: sed -e "..." same_file > same_file.
Solution 5 - Regex
sed -i '/![^#]/ s/\(^.*BBB.*$\)/#\ \1/' file
This doesn't work for me with the keyword *.sudo, no comments at all...
Ony the syntax below works:
sed -e '/sudo/ s/^#*/#/' file
Solution 6 - Regex
Actually, you don't need the exclamation sign (!) as the caret symbol already negates whatever is inside the square brackets and will ignore all hash symbol from your search. This example worked for me:
sed -i '/[^#]/ s/\(^.*BBB.*$\)/#\ \1/' file
Solution 7 - Regex
Comment all "BBB", if it's haven't comment yet.
sed -i '/BBB/s/^#\?/#/' file
Solution 8 - Regex
I'd usually supply sed with -i.bak to backup the file prior to making changes to the original copy:
sed -i.bak '/BBB/ s/^#*/#/' file
This way when done, I have both file and file.bak and I can decide to delete file.bak only after I'm confident.
Solution 9 - Regex
If you want to comment out not only exact matches for 'BBB' but also lines that have 'BBB' somewhere in the middle, you can go with following solution:
sed -E '/^([^#].*)?BBB/ s/^/#/'
This won't change any strings that are already commented out.